The pesticides industry has been buoyed by a landmark ruling allowing similar, but not identical imports, to be sold in the UK without further tests.

Prior to the appeal court ruling, only imported chemicals with exactly the same formulation procedure as those approved in the UK were approved for use on the nation's farms.

But a judgement in favour if Defra given on November 4 overturned the previous ruling, made by Mr Justice Richards in 1999.

The Court of Appeal deemed so-called 'parallel' imports safe to use in the UK, saying that differences in formulation have no significant effect on the environment.

The decision met with the approval of Lord Whitty.

He said: 'I am pleased that this department's appeal has been successful and that the court has accepted the arguments in favour of a more relaxed identicality test.'

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