China's pesticides import & export in the first ten months of 2011

According to the customs, the value of Chinese imports of pesticides in the first ten months of 2011 was $408 million, with volume reaching 44,000 tons. Fungicides was the only category to maintain growth, total import volume was 16,000 tons, up by 32.5%. The import volume of insecticides and herbicides were 5,600 tons and 14,000 tons, down by 23% and 23.7%, respectively.

The export volume of pesticides was 664,800 tons, consisting of herbicides, 411,500 tons, up by 46.3% year on year, insecticides, 170,900 tons, increased by 23.2% and fungicides, 64,400 tons, up by 24.2%.

From above figures can be seen that the major category of import was still fungicides. The import volume of insecticides and herbicides posted significant decreases. But which can not be ignored is that the decrease of import volume didn’t reflect in the import value equally. The accumulated import volume from January to October was 44,000 tons, with value of $408 million. In October, the export volume was 53,700 tons, higher than the accumulated import volume, but value was only $162 million, less than 40% of export value. Upgrading product quality continuously has become the significant factor deciding Chinese pesticide industry’s status in the global competition.