The Illegal Trade in Chemicals

Table 1: Assessment tools: Purpose and limitations analyzing trade in illegal pesticides

Assessment Gap analysis

Main purpose Possible entry points along the life cycles of pesticides Pesticide balances (production and import vs. use and export) Pesticide sales vs. pesticide use data

Challenges Does not provide direct figures Requires qualified professionals Lack of data Customs statistics:

Analysis of official statistics

• Often cover the entire HS group 3808 • Do not reflect cross-border and online individual purchases Active ingredients not reflected Differences in financial and calendar years Financial reporting of the companies does not always reflect real production volume (tax optimization) Requires qualified market researchers and agronomists Requires qualified professionals asking consistent questions in order to collect comparable information May be incomplete or misleading

Industry reports and studies

Volume, production, sales and share of illicit products from the industry perspective Demand and types of required pesticides based on agronomy Existing trade routes from the field perspective

Market analysis

Questionnaires and interviews

Media check

Case studies, secondary source

The Illegal Trade in Chemicals

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