Corn fungicide market quadruples in Brazil

Brazil’s fungicide market for corn has quadrupled between the 2014-15 and 2022-23 crop seasons, growing from BRL561 million to BRL2.8 billion, according to data from the Kynetec Brasil's FarmTrak study.

The consultancy reported that 85% of total movement, equivalent to BRL2.4 billion, corresponds to the second winter crop, while the remaining 15% is related to summer cultivation. Compared to the previous crop in 2021-22, where fungicides accounted for BRL2.25 billion, there was a 26% increase in transactions for these products.

″Season after season, FarmTrak monitors producers that are more engaged in controlling diseases that can cause potential damage to productivity, as well as those using fungicides to achieve direct physiological effects on production,″ said Gabriel Pedroso, market intelligence analyst at Kynetec.

″This behavior has led to progressive intensity in treatment adoption, especially during the second crop, while facing challenges such as grass rust, leaf spots, Cercospora, anthracnose and diplodia,″ he added.

Among the most used subsegments of fungicides, the so-called Stroby Mix solutions, composed of strobilurins and triazoles, continue to lead sales with 55% of total or BRL1.6 billion in the 2022-23 crop season.

″However, FarmTrak pointed out a change in the fungicide mix. In eight crops, ‘premium’ products, generally based on carboxamides, have increased from 6% of market share at BRL33 million to 28% at BRL793 million. These inputs are now consolidated in producer’s management systems and were used on 25% of grain-cultivated area in 2022-23,″ Pedroso said.

Regarding other subsegments, he revealed that protective fungicides accounted for 7% of transactions at BRL206 million, followed by benzimidazoles and triazoles, each with 4% or BRL203 million in total, while other fungicides accounted for 2% at BRL66 million.

Conducted in major producing regions, Kynetec's FarmTrak Corn also found that the planted area for cereal was 19.8 million hectares in the 2022-23 season.

According to the consultancy, the second crop covered 15.6 million hectares or 79% of total. Meanwhile, the summer crop occupied 4.2 million hectares or 21%.

Overall, FarmTrak Corn 2022-23 supports previous assessments by the consultancy in the area, recording significant advances in producers’ adherence to fungicides in the historical series, Pedroso said.

For example, with safrinha corn, 97% of planting areas received at least one fungicide application in 2022-23, compared to 85% eight crops ago, while in summer corn, the same ratio jumped from 34% to 59%, he added.

″The average intensity of treatments increased from 1.4 to two applications in the second crop and from 1.5 to 1.8 in the summer crop,″ Pedroso explained.

″Even in the face of a still significant difference in technology adoption between safrinha and summer corn, technology adoption in summer corn has also grown by comparison. For example, in the 2015-16 cycle, areas not treated with fungicides in summer planting for silage production exceeded 90% of total,″ he further added.

According to Pedroso, the disparity in fungicide adoption between one crop and another can be mainly explained by the fact that producers prioritize grain harvesting in the second crop, while in summer, at least 30% of cultivated area is allocated to silage production, which traditionally employs less technology.

″In the 2022-23 summer crop, more than 65% of areas cultivated for silage had no fungicide applications,″ Pedroso said in conclusion. 

(1 USD = 4,94 BRL)

(Editing by Leonardo Gottems, reporter for AgroPages)