Emamecticin Benzoate smuggled from Paraguay to Brazil‏

According to farmers from the Brazil-Paraguay border, Emamecticin Benzoate is frequently being smuggled to Brazil through the dry frontier with Paraguay. The substance is still not authorized to be used in Brazil, but is one of the only effective tools to combat the caterpillar Helicoverpa armigera.

"The apprehension of these products have increased, even more because of the caterpillar. As the product is not allowed in Brazil, I believe it will be 'imported' from Paraguay very often", says the superintendent of Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture in Mato Grosso do Sul state, Jair Barelone.

An unidentified farmer from the region revealed that "farmers go desperate seeing its crop losing a big part, and use all the weapons that can, one of them being smuggling of this product. For years, farmers use this border due to the 300 km (nearly 186 miles) of dry border. It is very easy to bring this product here. It comes on a fake pack and inside there is this poison used here in Brazil. Of course, the Brazilian law does not allow it, but it also forces the smuggle from there to here".

An unwilling to identify trader told that he received the following proposal: use his farming store as a "dealership of Benzoate". The product comes from Paraguay on fake packs and would be sold illegally in Brazil. The trader buys a determinate volume of the agrochemical in Brazil. From Paraguay comes a pack identical tot the packs purchased in Brazil and inside the packs there are benzoate. And so the product is sold on a dealership of agrochemicals with real invoices.

"The Benzoate enters disguised in Brazil. There are manufacturers of packs in Paraguay that can produce everything as wanted. They put the product inside and it comes to Brazil looking like a product from here, like everybody uses and, including, it comes sealed", says the trader.

The Agriculture Secretary of Mato Grosso do Sul, Teresa Cristina, justified that "there are over 700 km of border. It is very hard to monitor it. The Ministry of Agriculture does it, the State Agency of Plant and Animal Protection, which is responsible for hallowing, goes to the properties, and if finds something out, complicated the life of the individual. Besides, there is a huge fine and the product is apprehended. The farmer responds criminally".