Africa-Press – Uganda. Several products have been seized during a sting operation carried by the Anti Counterfeit Network(ACN) , Ministry of Agriculture and Police at Container Village in Kampala targeting fake agro-chemicals.
The Friday afternoon operation, according to officials from the Anti-Counterfeit Network followed a tip off from members of the public on suspicious activities at the shops raided.
“We have an application called Bleep where members of the public can report counterfeits. This is where we received a report of counterfeit agro-chemicals being sold by these particular shops that we raided,” Trevor Igumba, an official from ACN said.
According to Charles Ssendaaza, an agricultural inspector from the department of crop inspection and certification in the Ministry of Agriculture, at the two shops, they found fake agro-chemicals.
“The owners would buy genuine products and mix them with counterfeit products. They would then buy bottles resembling the genuine products, seal and pack in boxes of genuine products. They would then sell to unsuspecting members of the public and farmers,” Ssendaaza said.
During the raid, two suspects were arrested and detained while all the products were seized and the shops closed.
One of the suspects, Robert Sseruuma was found to be a habitual offender, having been arrested over five times in the past and in one of them charged to courts of law and remanded.
The official from the Anti Counterfeit Network highlighted the danger of using counterfeit agro-chemicals.
“For example if you are trying to get good plants out of the seeds you buy from this shop, you wont succeed. If the seeds are genuine, they wont require a lot of manure, a lot of watering and weeding. On the contrary, for the counterfeit seeds, you will do all these and you will never get good results. This means you will inject in a lot of money but results will be poor,” Igumba said.
“If it is a case of insecticides, you will hear cases where one sprays and the insects don’t die. This is because one is using counterfeit products that they bought unknowingly.”
He urged members of the public to always be vigilant and identify counterfeit products.
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