The Minister asked the Administrative Court of Appeal to annul the judgment of 10 December 2012 of the Administrative Court of Basse-Terre insofar as it annulled the prefectoral orders by which the Prefect of Guadeloupe granted the company "Les producteurs de Guadeloupe" for a period of six months an exemption to the prohibition on aerial spraying of products mentioned in Article L. 253-1 of the Rural and Maritime Fishing Code.

The legality of the prefectural derogation to the ban on aerial spraying of plant protection products is assessed, on the one hand, in the light of Articles 9 and 11 of Directive 2009/128/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009 establishing a framework for Community action to achieve a sustainable use of pesticides, and on the other hand, in the light of Article L. 253-8 of the Rural and Maritime Fishing Code and an order of 31 May 2011 relating to the conditions for the spraying of certain products.

To do this, the court noted that cercosporiosis, a fungal disease of the banana tree, "develops essentially on the highest leaves of the trees at six or seven metres above the ground".

It also took into account the sloping topography of the area, the soil and climate conditions and the layout of the banana rows in the plots. It concluded that aerial spraying, using aircraft equipped with both an "anti-drift" nozzle system and a GPS system allowing automatic cut-off of spraying in the no-treatment zones, had environmental advantages over manual treatment with a backpack sprayer or any other land-based method currently available on the market.

In these circumstances, the Court considered that the derogation at issue, which is not of a general and quasi-permanent nature, and which takes into account the risk resulting from run-off in mountain areas, meets the characteristics that derogation authorisations must legally satisfy.To do this, the court noted that cercosporiosis, a fungal disease of the banana tree, develops mainly on the highest leaves of the trees at six or seven meters above the ground. It also took into account the sloping topography of the area, the soil and climate conditions and the location of the banana trees in the plots. It deduced that aerial spraying had environmental advantages over manual treatment with a backpack sprayer or any other ground method currently available on the market.

In these conditions, the court considers that the disputed derogation, which is not of a general and quasi-permanent nature, and which takes into account the risk resulting from runoff in mountainous areas, satisfies the characteristics that derogation authorizations must legally meet.