Statistical Service of Cyprus (CYSTAT)

Agricultural Statistics Section

Michael Karaoli Street, 1444 Nicosia, Cyprus

See sub-concepts below.

A complete catalogue of suppliers of pesticides and a catalogue of the substances that are in the market is provided by the Department of Agriculture of the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment for the purpose of the survey conducted. A questionnaire is prepared by the Agricultural Statistics Section as well as the software for the data entry and the statistical analysis.

The Official Statistics Law of 2021 (Law No. 25(I)/2021) provides the legal basis for the development, production and dissemination of official statistics in Cyprus. This law replaces and repeals the Statistics Law of 2000 (Law No. 15(I)/2000). It also specifies the tasks of the Statistical Service and defines its role and function as the agency responsible for the production of official statistics. 

The purpose of the new Law, which entered into force on the 18th March 2021, is to review and modernise the legislation governing the development, production and dissemination of official statistics. Its provisions are also in line with Regulation (EC) No. 223/2009 on European Statistics, with an emphasis on its latest amendment by Regulation (EU) 2015/759. The new law also attempted to include recommendations that were highlighted during the peer review process of the national statistical system, conducted in Cyprus in March 2015.

http://www.cystat.gov.cy/mof/cystat/statistics.nsf/legislation_en/legislation_en?OpenDocument

CYSTAT 

2021

All the variables required by the Regulation (EC) No. 1185/2009 of 25 November 2009 concerning statistics on pesticides are covered. 

No divergence between national and EU Regulation definitions.

The data are expressed in kilograms of active substances.

The classification of the active substances in plant protection products is annexed (Annex III) to Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/269 of 16 February 2017 amending Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning statistics on pesticides. The active substances are classified according to chemical and functional similarity. Aggregation levels in descending order comprise: major groups, categories of products, chemical classes and active substances.

The survey covers all pesticide suppliers in Cyprus.

The active substances are classified according to the revised Annex III - Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/269 of 16 February 2017 and amending Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning statistics on pesticides.

The authorised importers of pesticides who are also suppliers of pesticides.

All enterprises placing plant protection products on the market; authorisation holders and holders of parallel trade permits. In Cyprus there were only 17 suppliers of pesticides in 2019.

See sub-concepts below.

Republic of Cyprus.

Not applicable.

Data are available as from 2011 on an annual basis. 

Not applicable.

See sub-concepts below.

Not applicable.

The data is collected via e-mail questionnaires, where the total amount of kilograms and/or litres sold of every product is provided by each supplier.  

Annually.

The data collection is undertaken by the Agricultural Statistics Section of CYSTAT via e-mail questionnaires addressed to the suppliers. These e-mail questionnaires are not published on CYSTAT's website. There exists close co-operation with the data providers so as to ensure high response rate and quality of the data. There are many ways of trying to encourage response and minimise refusals, including reminders to the non responding units by various media (fax, telephone or e-mail); therefore the response rate is 100%. All data providers are contacted as many times as necessary in order to get the data on time. 

The Agricultural Statistics Section of CYSTAT receives annual data from all pesticides suppliers regarding the quantity of the substances that are sold in Cyprus. Validations are preformed for possible coding errors and volume errors. Also manual checks are carried out and, where necessary, contacts with enterprises/suppliers are taking place for the verification of data. 

Data collected is checked with the data of previous years and where inconsistencies are found, the enterprises/suppliers are contacted again for further verification of the data.

The total amount of kilograms and/or litres sold of every product is collected. Then, the total amount of active substance sold of each product is compiled using the amount of each active substance contained in the spesific product sold and the quantities in kilograms and/or litres sold. After all amounts of active substances are calculated, these are summed up into new variables by chemical classes, then by categories of products and finally by major groups.

No weights are used since it is a census. Also, no imputations are performed since the suppliers provide all information on their sales placed in the market.

No adjustments are made.

Statistics are produced in accordance with the provisions of the European Statistics Code of Practice and in line with the principles governing its implementation.

The quality of statistics is assessed according to the following quality criteria: relevance, accuracy, timeliness, punctuality, accessibility and clarity, coherence and comparability. The quality indicators are assessed taking into account Eurostat defined methodology and recommendations. On the basis of the above criteria, the indicator is assessed as being of good quality.

Statistics on sales of pesticides are requested by Eurostat, FAO, the Department of Agriculture, individuals users.

A user satisfaction survey is carried out on an annual basis, but is not specific to pesticide sales statistics. It does not allow for adequate conclusions to be made on statistics of pesticides.

The data are transmitted to Eurostat at the level of detail required by the Regulation (EC) No. 1185/2009 on statistics of pesticides.

100%

See sub-concepts below.

The primary objective is the production of accurate and reliable data on pesticides. For this purpose, a multilevel checking system of the questionnaires is set up after the completion of the data collection. Results are evaluated after the data analysis and are compared with the statistics on pesticides use, where applicable.

As there are only 17 suppliers of pesticides in the country, the survey is exhaustive. Data are not subject to sampling error because they are based on a census.

Not applicable.

For the pesticides' sales data, non-sampling errors are not quantified. Cystat tries to reduce non-sampling errors through continuous process improvements which can help avoiding coding and typing errors.The personnel working is well experienced and properly guided in order to be able to deal with difficult cases. At the stage of coding, basic checks are being performed regarding the contents of the filled questionnaires received. The common errors are measurement errors or incomplete information. After the punching of the data, exhaustive checks are applied for quality purposes. Appropriate validation procedures are applied at micro level and the following actions are performed: monitoring and analyzing the data completeness, consulting with the reporting units to confirm data.  Controls on aggregated data are also performed before the transmission to Eurostat and their release at Cystat website.

Full coverage is achieved.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

No non-response units.

No non-response items.

Appropriate validation procedures are applied at micro level and the following actions are performed: 1) monitoring and analyzing the data completeness, 2) consulting with the reporting units to confirm data. Controls on aggregated data are also performed before their release. 

No imputation is applied.

Not applicable.

Not applicable for pesticide sales statistics, because the reported data on plant protection products covers the whole year.

There is a formal revision policy at Cystat. Cystat publishes its Revision Policy on its website, describing the general rules and principles governing the procedure of revising data published by Cystat. The policy is based on the guidelines of the European Statistical System (ESS) regarding revision policies for principal European economic indicators, also taking into account the Quality Assurance Framework of the ESS and the European Statistics Code of Practice.

The same practice is applied to data transmitted to Eurostat; when revised data are transmitted to Eurostat, these are accompanied by the necessary explanations. National users are also informed with the apropriate notes together with the summary tables uploaded at Cystat website.

Only finalised data are transmitted to Eurostat. There are no planned revisions as such. Nevertheless, if data are revised, an informative e-mail message is sent to the person responsible for pesticides statistics in Eurostat Unit E-1.

Following methodological changes for the list of active substances (Annex III revised in February 2017), Cystat has reclassified data from 2011 onwards and are thus comparable. The reclassified data has been transmitted to Eurostat together with the 2018 data. The impact of the revisions was not calculated.

Data are transmitted to Eurostat 12 months after the end of the reference year.

 t+12 months.

t+12 months.

 Eurostat deadlines are respected.

Both Eurostat and national deadlines are respected. All releases are delivered on time.

Deadlines are respected. No delays.

Since Cyprus is a NUTS1 region, comparability is possible only with other European countries.

Not applicable.

Data are comparable over time. Data have been released as from 2011.

9

Comparisons are carried out with annual data on pesticides use, where applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

The data are internally consistent.

No news release accompanies the tables published.

No publication is produced; however summary tables are published on CYSTAT's website (see section 9.3. Dissemination format - online database).

There is no online database available, instead a summary table 'Sales of pesticides, 2011-2019' is uploaded on the website of the Statistical Service of Cyprus with aggregated results of the substances of pesticides placed in the market.

http://www.cystat.gov.cy/mof/cystat/statistics.nsf/agriculture_51main_en/agriculture_51main_en?OpenForm&sub=1&sel=2

Not available.

There is no microdata access to outside users.

No other dissemination format.

Not available.

Not available.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Overall the cost of the survey is estimated to be minimal. To minimise the respondent’s burden as much as possible, the questionnaire is designed to be clear and simple. No cost and burden exercise has been recentrly performed.

Under the provisions of the Statistics Law, the information collected is treated as confidential and is used solely for statistical purposes. No data for any individual enterprise is published or disclosed to either public bodies or private individuals.

The small number of pesticide suppliers and the specific substances that exist in the market guarantees to a large extent the accuracy of the collected data.