Bayer Crop Science Limited, an agro-chemicals production company, says some unscrupulous persons have flooded the market with imitation products of the company -- a situation it laments is adversely affecting sales as the “fake products” are relatively cheaper, thus wooing many ignorant customers.

According to Bayer, the product with the most derivative samples on the market now is confidor. The illegal practice, the company noted, not only threatens business growth but also has the propensity to endanger the environment and human health.

“Some faceless people formulate anything and brand them as Bayer products to deceive the public. They have realised Bayer products are very effective and are in hot demand at the market, hence their rush to take undue advantage with imitations,” Peter Ampofo, Crop Manager-Bayer Crop Science, told B&FT in an interview.

He said: “The toxicity level of the fake products cannot be authenticated; they have high residual content with less biodegradability level, and are thereby highly prone to contaminate groundwater and ruin biodiversity.”

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that every year three million people suffer from acute severe pesticide poison and over 20,000 are susceptible to death worldwide. The unfortunate situation is that the vast majority occurs in developing regions, including Ghana.

Mr. Ampofo stressed the need for regulatory bodies such as the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), Ghana Standard Authority and securities agencies at the countries frontiers and ports to step up their game in order to free the system from the influx to imitation agro-chemicals.

To help segregate original Bayer products from the fake ones, he revealed that the company has circumvented the open market and feeds into agricultural programmes and projects to ensure quality products reach the farmers. He also advised farmers to be extra-careful about security features of agro-chemicals they buy from the open market.