16% growth of pesticides market in France expected by 2013

Market experts forecast that agrochemicals and pesticides market in France will experience a 10% growth in 2010 with high single digit percentage increases thereafter. As late as 2013, growth is expected to again accelerate into the double-digits at 16%.

In 2007 the French government signed the Grenelle Agreement on the environment promising to reduce by half the quantity of pesticides used within 10 years.  By 2010, 53 dangerous molecules had to be withdrawn from the market or their use had to be halved. Licenses for 30 of them will be scrapped this year, although a one-year delay was granted for three particular molecules, the time to find alternative products.

By early 2011 the Directive on the sustainable use of pesticides should be implemented by France. So now France has to direct the industrial potential of the country on non-chemical pest control methods such as crop rotation, to be used wherever possible as alternatives to pesticides. It will also require banning of aerial crop spraying especially in close proximity to residential areas. The use of pesticides must be minimized or prohibited in specific areas used by the general public or by vulnerable groups, such as parks, schools, sports grounds and close to hospitals. All of the activities will require renovations in the production process of the agrochemicals and pesticides producing companies in France.

The key producers of agrochemicals and pesticides in France are Bayer CropScience S.A., BASF Agro in France, Site Genay, Gravelines site, Site de Saint Aubin Tweed, Nufarm SAS, Syngenta Agro S.A.S., Makhteshim Agan France, Philagro France, Monsanto Agriculture France SAS.

Six pesticide companies (Syngenta, Bayer, Monsanto, BASF, Dow and DuPont) account for 70% of the global market, and the top 10 control 80 % of global agrochemical sales. While the six companies dominate the agrochemicals and pesticides world market, there seems to be a considerable growth of national agrochemicals and pesticides industries in France as well as in developing countries (India, Taiwan, China, South Korea, Mexico).

More information on agrochemicals and pesticides industry and market in France may be found in the report Agrochemicals and Pesticides Market in France: Business Report 2010 recently published by The Market Publishers, Ltd.