2014 China Glyphosate Export Analysis

As a superpower of pesticides manufacturing and exporting, China’s pesticides export has constantly shown the trend of steady growth. In recent years, however, the structure of exported products saw some changes as indicated by increased share of formulation products, which is a sign of progress for Chinese pesticides manufacturing.

Glyphosate is the biggest product in terms of volume and value among Chinese exported pesticides. The export ratio of technical and formulation products has also changed constantly in recent years. This review updates China’s glyphosate export condition in 2014, in aim of helping glyphosate buyers locate the right partners and find the potential products.

According to AgroPages’ market report “2014 China Pesticides Export Analysis”, the export volume of glyphosate was 712.4 thousand tons, valued at $3,736 million. The volume of technical products, including glyphosate TC, glyphosate-monoammonium TC, and glyphosate TKL, was 271.9 thousand tons, with a value of $2,054 million. The volume of formulation products was 440.5 thousand tons, valued at $1,683 million, representing 45% of the total value of glyphosate export (Figure 1).

Technical glyphosate export analysis in 2014  

Analysis by exporting price

The price of technical glyphosate presented a hike trend in the early of the year 2014. From January to April, the price went up until reached $5,700 per ton (Figure 2). From end of April till December, significant prices decrease was seen. In December, the average price was $4,230 per ton, down by 22% compared to the early month (January) of 2014. However, the export volume saw a great leap in comparison with previous months.


According to industrial expert, the declining market of glyphosate was due to the decreased planting areas of GMO crops in North America and Latin America, as well as lower purchase need from multinationals.

Analysis by exporting countries

The glyphosate technical products were exported to 59 countries in 2014. US ranked the first in exporting value at $490 million, representing 24% of the total export from China, followed by Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia and Australia (Table 1). The top 10 countries sorted by value take up 85% of the total export.


Analysis by exporters

There are 153 exporters which handled the technical glyphosate exporting in 2014, with a total export value of $2,047 million. Fuhua Tongda Agro-chemical Technology is listed as the top, with export value of $474 million, followed by Nantong Jiangshan Agrochemical & Chemicals and Zhenjiang Jiang Nan Chemicals. In terms of volume and value, the top 10 exporters representing more than 80% of the total export, which indicating a concentrated manufacturing status of glyphosate in China.


Glyphosate formulation export analysis in 2014

Analysis by formulation types

As per the statistics of AgroPages, the main glyphosate formulations are aqueous solution (AS) and water soluble granule (SG) in different concentration (Table 3). Glyphosate-isopropylammonium (glyphosate- IPA) AS takes up the largest category (65%) of the formulation products, valued at $1,091 million( Figure 3).


Analysis by exporting countries

The destinations of glyphosate formulation cover 133 countries, mainly in developing areas like Africa, southeast Asia and South America because of lacking of formulation manufacturing capacities. Nigeria ranked the first in glyphosate formulation importing from China. Another African country Ghana ranked the third. Total of these two countries’ importing value reached $309 million, representing a 38% of the total exporting value from China in 2014(Table 4).


Analysis by exporters

Regarding the number of exporter of glyphosate formulation, there were totally 347 companies. The top ten exporters listed below (Table 5), with a total export value of $770 million, representing 46% of the exporting value of glyphosate formulation. It is worth to be mentioned that the leading glyphosate companies in China, like Zhejiang Wynca, Zhejiang Jinfanda, Shandong Weifang Rainbow and Jiangsu Good Harvest-Weien and Leshan Fuhua tongda’s high quality glyphosate formulation have enjoyed high reputation in the industry.