India: Agrochemicals may cost a fifth more this season

Prices of agrochemicals like pesticides and herbicides in the Indian market are set to go up by at least a fifth with rising global crude prices and shut down of many raw material factories in China, the world's largest producer of agrochemical raw materials.

India, which is the fourth largest producer of agrochemicals globally after the United States, Japan and China, imports nearly 60% of its technicals requirement from China, who fulfils 90% of the world's technicals requirement.

According to analysts and agrochemical companies, the prices of crude oil, from which essential raw materials for manufacturing of technicals are derived like the second and third derivatives of crude, chlorine, yellow phosphorus and bromine etc. has increased from $25-30 per barrel in January 2016 to $50-55 per barrel towards the end of the year pushing up the prices of technicals. This exerts a direct pressure on the prices of formulations or finished agrochemicals like pesticides, insecticides, majorly used in crops like cotton, paddy.