Agro-chemical smugglers to feel squeeze
-Berbice flooded with illegal pesticides and herbicides Business December 10, 2004
Stabroek News
December 10, 2004

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Legal retailers of pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals in the Berbice area have been in a losing battle with smuggled chemicals from Suriname.

However, the recently passed regulations made under the Pesticides and Toxic Chemicals Control Act 2000, No. 13 could help reverse the tide of illegal imports.

Stabroek Business spoke with two retailers who distribute in Berbice, where one has already closed its outlet and another whose profit has declined by half.

"Once you have no control you [are] in trouble," says Victor A. Pires, managing director of Caribbean Chemicals Guyana Ltd., at 45 Croal Street.

Caribbean Chemicals, from its inception, had sales representatives in Berbice and later opened a retail outlet. But over a year ago the company's outlet was closed due to a dramatic decline in business leaving only the company's sales representatives in the region. The employee base was also cut from four to two.

Caribbean Chemicals is also based in Trinidad and Tobago.

Meanwhile the Act was tabled in parliament in 2000 but the regulations detailing the condition and circumstances under which retailers would operate were not in place.

This meant insecticides and in particular herbicides began pouring into Berbice from Suriname, says Pires.

He says chemicals from Suriname initially took around 5% to 10% of the market in Berbice but this has drastically increased to 80%. Of the smuggled chemicals 75% are sold to large retail outlets in Berbice and 25% directly to farmers, according to a reliable source. Very little smuggled chemicals come from Venezuela or Brazil.

Pires believes that money laundering may be a part of the problem.

He cited the case of where his company retailed the chemical Karatok to a large chemical retailer in Suriname for US$18; that company sold it for US$20 to a Surinamese, who then sold the Karatok to a local trader to retail in Guyana at US$16. This incident was discovered after the company traced the product which carried its label. Money launderers are not interested in making profits but in legitimizing proceeds from illegal activities.

Traders now go from home to home in East and West Berbice to sell the chemicals. But Caribbean Chemicals says it receives complaints about the quality i.e in some cases twice as much of the chemical has to be used. And since the label is in a foreign language they are often used for the wrong purposes.

A similar company to Caribbean Chemicals in Suriname closed down its agriculture department as a result of the amount of smuggled chemicals coming into Suriname.

Early this year the Suriname government implemented regulations to deal with smuggled chemicals, so smugglers are now using Guyana as a transhipment point into Suriname, according to a reliable source.

"The problem is you don't know what they are bringing in," says Pires, but with these regulations inspections will be conducted and inspectors will be stationed in Berbice. Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture which has the authority for enforcing the Act/Regulations could not be reached to say how soon these inspectors would be appointed.

Another notable retailer of chemicals in Berbice says smuggled chemicals from Suriname have significantly affected his business. His business has declined by over 50% but he is able to survive because the company retails other non-chemical items.

He says it is good to have the regulations in place but at the moment there is nothing to suggest that it will make a difference.