A significant portion of Europe's pesticide market, up to 14%, is estimated to be counterfeit or illegal, with rates as high as 25% in some regions of Greece. Farmers are drawn to these illegal products due to their lower costs, but experts warn of the dangers posed by unregulated substances containing banned carcinogenic chemicals. Authorities have been actively combating this issue, seizing nearly 8,700 tonnes of illegal pesticides since 2020, highlighting the scale of the $20 billion global trade.