Issue: A Romanian crop protection organization enlisted Interdiligence to do a micro-analysis of illicit and counterfeit pesticides in order to provide market intelligence and produce a risk assessment.
Process: Interdiligence offered the Client: a project manager, field operatives, legal services, and a full analytical team. An outline of the project was produced and given to the Client and then the teams were activated to perform their investigation. The analytical team started by scraping and scrolling the web using in-house robots. All information was sanitized and placed into our software to produce tables, graphs, and relational charts about the market and its flow. Furthermore, an algorithm was developed to determine the necessary amount of pesticides necessary for each region of the country. All amounts were calculated and integrated into software to produce graphs and tables. All information was handed off to the project manager and included into the reports.
At the same time the operational teams were busy in the field observing, documenting, and approaching key individuals and stores to obtain first hand knowledge of the illegal and illicit market. Certain individuals were activated to perform market shopping and several illegal products were identified. Other operatives infiltrated key circles to obtain shopping habits and knowledge about key organizations/sellers. All information was documented and sent back to the analytical team to validate and collaborate initial findings.The third branch of operatives focused on illegal transportation of goods. Through observation and contact illegal international distributors/suppliers and their access points were identified. This information was compared to governmental reports to validate and confirm findings.
All material, after sanitation and validity testing, was provided to the project manager to include in reports.
Findings/Solutions: Our investigation provided the client with valuable data and analysis of the market allowing them to:
- Identify counterfeit products;
- Cut down on illegal transit and sales of counterfeit pesticides;
- Safeguard consumers from dangerous products;
- Cut ties with illegal sellers of pesticides;
- Assess the risk level of entry into new market areas;
- Increase profits and expand business opportunities;