Six months of investigations by Greenpeace show that traders including Germany's biggest agricultural traders, Raiffeisen, are selling toxic and strictly prohibited pesticides in south Germany and Alsace. Eleven traders sold Greenpeace's investigators a total of approximately 100 kilogrammes of illegal pesticides such as bifenthrin, malathion and diethion, which have either never been authorised in Germany or been banned for years. Four of the eleven traders belong to the Raiffeisen group. A branch of Raiffeisen holdings sold ten litres of the extremely hazardous pesticide parathion (WHO class Ia) in Salmbach in the French part of Alsace for cash and without a receipt. Residues of such chemicals have been detected time and again by Greenpeace and authorities monitoring food of German origin.

Traders who operate around the German-French border have German-speaking sales staff on hand and pitch their sales particularly at German farmers. On request goods are delivered in Germany. Greenpeace presented film footage, sales receipts and some 100 kilogrammes of illegal pesticides at a press conference in Berlin. The pesticides impounded by Greenpeace contained eleven chemicals banned in Germany and three banned throughout the EU. The environmental organisation is reporting the matter to the authorities as a violation of the law on pesticides with suspicion of tax evasion.

Greenpeace is calling for effective controls across borders. Traders and farmers who sell or use illegal pesticides must be severely punished. Their licences to trade or produce must be revoked and agricultural subsidies cancelled. Greenpeace is also calling for more support for alternatives.

Greenpeace Germany, Krimineller Handel mit illegalen Pestiziden? 2006, available at: http://www.greenpeace.de.