Chinese pirates have been sending some “hazardous” goods. But nobody here suspects anything, including the customs officers.They do however notice this unmarked case during a routine control. And then, it’s soon clear: this time, they have discovered counterfeit pesticides. The trademark pirates’ new area of activity: criminal transactions with illegal pesticides. Rainer Wujciak from the Hamburg Ministry of Economic Affairs: “We know there is a wide-spread network, worldwide but also between Europe and Asia. Millions are made here.”
The trade in counterfeit pesticides has exploded. Nobody knows exactly what the counterfeiters use for ingredients. Tests have shown that these often contain prohibited substances that are harmful to health and that are particularly dangerous for pregnant women and children.
We meet an insider who is very familiar with the counterfeiting scene. He does not want to be recognized. He says what no customs authority may currently confirm: ordering illegal pesticides is child’s play and transport into the EU is normally no problem. Seizures are taken into consideration says the insider: “Illegal pesticides have been imported for at least five years. Several hundred tonnes are now seized every year in Europe. These are enormous amounts.”
Around 600 tonnes were indeed seized last year but a great deal still slips through. The main sales markets for illegal products are in Southern and Eastern Europe, the main growing areas for fruit and vegetables. The evidence, for example, here in Greece, is on the edge of many fields, such as: tons of empty bottles, all counterfeit.
Alarm bells started ringing at ECPA, the European Crop Protection Association in Brussels since Friedhelm Schmider established during a market study that illegal pesticides have ended up in the agricultural system. Friedhelm Schmider found that the sales figures of the legal producers did not fit in with actual consumption.
“We noticed that as we operate many statistics and we ask the companies each year what the sales values are, and the sales values that these companies have given us did not correspond to the figures consumed on the market.”
It is estimated that between five and eight per cent of all pesticides used in Europe are counterfeit. And the counterfeiters are very familiar with customs and transport laws in the EU and they know all the tricks, says Friedhelm Schmider:
“What I have encountered most often is the fact that the customs often have their hands tied, legally speaking, particularly if the goods are transiting the European Union.”
And so the criminals, just like in this example from Hamburg, often proceed as follows: in the red container from China: illegal pesticides in plain white plastic beakers. In the blue container: the top parts of their measuring beakers with the producer’s counterfeited trademarks. Both containers are to transit Lithuania on the way to Russia.
No labels or trademarks are attached to the illegal goods during transport. Only the top part. The counterfeiters have their reasons for this, says Rainer Wujciak from experience: “If, however, I send this separately and they only see this small bottle, they have no means to stop it or to destroy it. The beaker is different.”
Do the customs seize the beakers and can the actual illegal goods proceed? The finance ministry responsible for the customs explains that as follows:
“There are no legal grounds for the customs to stop goods that are just transiting Germany.”
It has long since been clear, says Rainer Wujciak, “that the criminals are very aware of what legal provisions and what possibilities may affect them in Europe and that they try on a knife edge to bypass these legal provisions in pursuing their illegal activities.”
The illegal goods from Hamburg, after a few stops, have meanwhile arrived in Riga. The people behind this want to cover their tracks. Quotation on this in an e-mail from one of the criminals:
“... We absolutely must break the transport chain. I have also found two Russian specialists who are familiar with chemical transport and customs.” And lots of this then ends up on our desk. The figures speak volumes: the legally permitted transgressions in the case of pesticides in fruit and vegetables from the EU are a third higher than is the case with German goods. Lax custom regulations and the counterfeiter’s criminal energy go against consumer health.
Report: Sabina Wolf