Those involved with forestry investment in Eastern Europe have been warned to treat the use of pesticides with care with the use counterfeit products on the rise.
The warning comes from European law enforcement agency Europol, which have already published stats on the trade over the past three months, with the group claiming the problem is on the rise.
According to the group, the trade in illegal pesticides is worth hundreds of billions of dollars across the world. Europol figures indicate that as much as a quarter of the pesticides bought and sold in some European countries are counterfeit.
Hans Muilerman, chemicals coordinator for pressure group Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Europe, is quoted by the Royal Society of Chemistry as saying: "The enforcement bodies know about it, but they are not allowed to fine the farmers.
"The fines are not high enough - they're fines from 20 years ago when we had small farmers and small growers."
In 2009, BASF, Bayer CropScience and DuPont all won cases against counterfeit traders operating in Europe.
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