Ukraine uncovers underground pesticide production with a turnover of hundreds of millions of hryvnias

A large-scale network that manufactured and sold counterfeit agrochemical products under the guise of goods from leading international companies has been exposed in Ukraine. About this said National Police.

As a result of the special operation, law enforcement officers conducted 89 searches in Kyiv and 11 regions (Zakarpattia, Kyiv, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava, Ternopil, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy, Chernivtsi).

Counterfeit products and components for their manufacture worth over UAH 100 million were seized.

The network consisted of eight clandestine workshops where pesticides were produced on an industrial scale from raw materials obtained from China.

The finished products were labeled with trademarks of well-known agrochemical brands in Europe and the United States.

For this purpose, workshops for the production of counterfeit labels, holograms, packaging, and instructions were set up in Kyiv and Odesa regions.

A separate plastic container production facility operated in the Kharkiv region.

The counterfeit was sold in Ukraine and the EU through online stores and logistics companies.

"In March-July of this year alone, the offenders produced more than 400 tons of counterfeit agrochemical products. The expected revenue from its sale was over UAH 200 million," the police said.

During the searches, law enforcement officers seized more than 175 tons of counterfeit goods and raw materials, production equipment, documents, cash in hryvnia and foreign currency (totaling about UAH 9 million), and 20 cars.

The investigation is ongoing within the framework of criminal proceedings under articles on fraud, illegal manufacture and sale of toxic substances, as well as the use of other people's trademarks (Part 5 of Article 190, Part 4 of Article 321, Part 3 of Article 229 of the Criminal Code).

Upon completion of the examinations, the issue of serving the suspects with a notice of suspicion will be decided.

• In early June, the BES held one of the largest operations in 2025. UAH 1.2 billion worth of goods were seized from underground vape shops in two regions set up by a couple from Kharkiv.