China's pesticide demand 2014 estimated to drop slightly

China’s pesticide demand in 2014 is estimated to drop slightly by 1.38% at 1.01 million tons before being converted to 100% content, which will be 329,700 tons in 100% purity,  said an official from National Agricultural Technology Service Center in China in a recently held crop protection conference. Among them demand for insecticide, miticide and raticide is estimated to drop while fungicide demand is expected to be flat; demand for herbicide and plant growth regulator(PGR) is estimated to increase while demand for seed coating agent and crop protection machinery may increase significantly.

According to a forecast, insecticide demand in 2014 will be down by 1.21% at 120,300 tons year on year. Due to the demand drop of conventional organophosphorus insecticide, carbamate insecticide demand has increased by 10.72% year on year, the demand for which is expected to be a significant increase and reach 6,400 tons; the largely used varieties will include isoprocarb, carbofuran, carbosulfan, methomyl and pirimicarb; pyrethroids demand is expected to be up16.05% at 4,200 tons; the largely used varieties will include high-efficient cypermethrin, fenvalerateand fenpropathrinester, especially fenpropathrin ester which will increase significantly.

The fungicide demand is estimated to be flat at 84,000 tons compared to last year; the largely demanded varieties will include copper sulfate, carbendazim, zineb, thiophanate-methyl, tricyclazole,chlorothalonile,validamycin, triadimefon and etc..

Demand for herbicide and plant growth regulator(PGR) is expected to increase significantly, where herbicide demand is expected to be 109,000 tons, and the largely demanded varieties will include glyphosate, acetochlor, atrazine, and paraquat, butachlor, 2,4-D butylate and bentazon. Demand for new varieties like cyhalofop-butyl, penoxsulam and metamifop is expected to increase significantly. Plant growth regulator(PGR) is expected to be up by 20.27% at 4,456 tons covering many of its varieties, particularly the ethephon, paclobutrazol and DPC.

Raticide demand is estimated to go down by 24.21% to 85.92 tons, while miticide demand is also estimated to drop by 3.38% to 10,500 tons year on year.

In recent years, with the ongoing development of labor emigration, land transfer, increase of scale growers and professional pest control organizations, it is expected that crop protection machinery demand will increase to provide good business opportunities for self-propelled sprayer and remote-controlled UAV, as well as the rice-oriented pesticide applying machinery.