AgroPages-Global Agrochemical Market will Continue to Maintain Steady Growth-Agricultural news

Christina Xie

Co-partner & Editor in chief

The market value of global agrochemical industry reached $60.69 billion in 2013, up by 8.5% compared with last year, according to the data of famous agrochem consulting company Phillips McDougall. Sales of crop protection market rose by 9.4% to $54.2 billion, whilst sales of non-crop agrochemical hit $6.48 billion, with 1.9% growth year on year. Latin America and Asia were the most active regions that have significant double-digit growth in sales. The key factors of the growth of crop protection market in 2013 were glyphosate price improvement, high crop prices and the favorable exchange rate.

Regional sales

The table 1 lists the available sales data of global major agrochemical markets in FY 2013.

Brazil and USA occupied respectively the first and second positions of global agrochemical market, and the market value of Brazil agrochemical exceeded $10 billion in 2013, accounting for some 20% of total value of global market. The main reason for the market growth lies on the increased crop planting area. The sales of agrochemicals in Brazil would grow between 6% and 9% in 2014, summing around $13 billion, pushed mostly by the soybean area, according to the Sindiveg.

Affected by prolonged rainfall, weed resistance issues, and higher manufacturing costs the U.S. crop protection industry remained strong in 2013, posting an 8.2% increase over the previous year. The wet conditions reduced insect pressure, causing the insecticide segment to decline at a double-digit percentage while promoting disease pressure and modestly increasing fungicide sales.

Agrochemical sales in Japan slightly rose by 1.2% and sales volume dipped by 0.2%, according to the Japan Crop Protection Association (JCPA). Herbicides were the largest category with sales up by some 2%. Insecticides and fungicides both dropped slightly.

Sales of Argentina agrochemical recorded $2.5 billion in 2013, up by 5.2%. Herbicides was the largest category, accounting for 70% of total market value, notably sales of glyphosate took up over half of herbicide revenue.

The pesticide sales in Australia fell by 7.7% to $2.017 billion in FY 2013, according to the data issued by APVMA. Herbicides were still the largest category, accounting for 55% of the total sales, even though the sales slipped by 3.1%. Except for the minor rise from household insecticides and algicides, the sales of the rest categories all dropped, including insecticides, fungicides, seed treatments and miticides.

German agrochemicals sales rose by 7.6% to $1.905 billion in 2013, according to the German Agriculture Industry Association, the IVA. As the largest category, herbicides’ sales increased by 2.7%, representing around 45% of total sales. The growth was driven by strong cereal herbicide market. Sales of fungicides soared up by 18% due to unstable weather, which resulted in higher disease pressure requiring intensive treatments at the late crop stage. Sales of insecticides fell by 7%.

Sales forecast of market segments

According to the information published in AgroPages, Table 2 lists the estimated future sales data of global agrochemical segment market which forecasted by some industry consulting agencies.

The global volume market for pesticides is projected to reach 3.2 million tons by 2019, with a CAGR for volume growth being 6.1% between 2014 and 2020. The global value market for pesticides is projected to reach $75.9 billion by 2019, expected to register a CAGR of 6.9%. North America is the largest global market for pesticides, while Asia-Pacific is forecast to be the fastest growing, with a 2014-2020 volume CAGR of 7.9%. Factors driving the markets for pesticides include decreasing arable land, increasing population and the requirement of improving crop yields.

The herbicide market is projected to reach a value of $29.98 billion by 2019, at a CAGR of 6.2% from 2014 to 2019. The glyphosate market is the largest among all types. Geographically, Latin America and Asia-Pacific are the top two consumers of herbicides, accounting together, for 51.2% of the market share.

Insecticides market will reach a value of $16.44 billion by 2019, at a CAGR of 4.7%. The Asia-Pacific market is projected to grow at the fastest CAGR of 5.4%. China and India are the largest markets in this region. The global fungicides market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.3%, and is projected to generate a value of $15.69 billion by 2019.

The global glyphosate market is expected to reach $ 8.79 billion by 2019, growing at a CAGR of 7.2%. Increasing adoption of glyphosate tolerant GM crops and the rising demand for no tillage farming systems are in turn expected to fuel glyphosate market. However, quick evolution and emergence of glyphosate resistant weeds along with stringent regulations over the use of agrochemicals, especially in Europe, is expected to fetter market growth over the forecast period.

Factors such as increasing demand for plant growth regulators for manufacturing cotton with the growth of the textile industry, and increasing organic farming owing to augmenting demand for organic food is expected to fuel the demand for the plant growth regulators over the forecast period. The nematicides market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 3.2 % to $1.33 billion from 2014 to 2019. Geographically, North America and Europe are the top two consumers of nematicides. The rodenticides market is projected to be valued above $900 million by 2019, driven by the growth in demand for food grains and increasing concerns by farmers regarding food wastage. The acaricides market is estimated to be valued at $275 million by 2019, with CAGR of 5.2%. The Asia-Pacific region is estimated to be the largest consumer of acaricides in the world, followed by Europe.

The growing biopesticide market will more than double to $4.5 billion in 2023, or about 7% of the total pesticide market, according to Lux Research. With growing population and increasing concern regarding industrial wastewater, the demand for biocides has been increasing in households as well as industrial sector. The global biocide market is expected to reach $9.62 billion in 2018 growing at an estimated CAGR of 4.7%. The global market for seed treatment is expected to reach $5.61 billion by 2020. Seed treatment demand is expected to increase due to growing need for protection of high cost seeds in the market. Agriculture adjuvant market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.3% to reach $2.96 billion by 2018. The markets of biostimulant, soil treatment and micronutrients will also see favorable growth in the future.