Gyeonggi Special Judicial Police Crack Down on 41 Illegal Pesticide Distribution Cases

Gyeonggi Provincial Government

Gyeonggi Province has cracked down on agricultural material distribution and sales businesses that committed illegal acts such as selling pesticides without registering as pesticide sales businesses or displaying and selling pesticides past their efficacy guarantee period.

The Gyeonggi Province Special Judicial Police for Public Welfare announced on the 31st that from the 1st to the 12th of this month, they inspected 360 locations including pesticide stores, agricultural material stores, horticultural material stores, and flower shops across 31 cities and counties in the province, and detected 46 violations at 41 locations.

Among the major cases, Flower Shop A located in Uiwang-si was caught selling two types of pesticides, including insecticides and fungicides, without registering as a pesticide sales business.

Pesticide Store B in Paju-si was caught storing and displaying four types of pesticides?fungicides, insecticides, adhesion agents, and herbicides?on shelves inside the store, all of which had exceeded their efficacy guarantee period by more than six months.

Pesticide Store C in Paju-si was found to have stored pesticides outdoors under a tent and in front of the store, despite the requirement to store pesticides in a registered warehouse equipped with ventilation, shading facilities, fire extinguishers, and marked as a 'Nongyak Warehouse' (Pesticide Warehouse).

Pesticide Store D in Goyang-si was revealed to have stored pesticides at a sales business location and storage warehouse that had been relocated to a different place from the original address without registering the change in pesticide sales business registration.

The current 'Pesticide Management Act' stipulates that selling pesticides without sales business registration or storing and selling pesticides past their efficacy guarantee period is punishable by imprisonment of up to three years or a fine of up to 30 million KRW; handling pesticides in violation of handling restriction standards is punishable by a fine of up to 3 million KRW; and changing registration details without registering the change is punishable by imprisonment of up to one year or a fine of up to 10 million KRW.

Hong Eun-gi, head of the Gyeonggi Province Special Judicial Police for Public Welfare, stated, "The distribution of counterfeit and substandard agricultural materials not only harms farmers and general consumers but also disrupts the order of agricultural material distribution. We will continue to do our best to eradicate illegal agricultural material distribution activities through ongoing crackdowns to raise awareness among agricultural material handling businesses."