Kyoyu Agri reports strong sales for pyraclonil

Kyoyu Agri says it excepts the application acreage of paddy-rice herbicide containing the pyraclonil active ingredient that it developed to reach a target of 300,000 hectares, at the peak, during the upcoming fiscal year, earlier than projected.

Pyraclonil is the first chemical found to have a broad weed-killing spectrum. Sales have been healthy since simultaneous marketing took off at the beginning of this year by seven Japanese pesticide makers of herbicides with this active ingredient, and the total application acreage has already reached 90,000 hectares.

The active ingredient profile of paddy-rice herbicides had been ballooning to cope with the emergence of sulfonylurea-tolerant weeds, but consumer preference has been trending toward crops cultivated with fewer chemicals. Farmers, therefore, have been sounding the call for a single active ingredient that can against a wide variety of weeds.

After pesticide registration was obtained in December 2007, pyraclonil went through field demonstration tests for a year, and application systems were then established to meet different regional needs.

Almost at the same time as Kyoyu Agri for pyraclonil, Dow Chemical Japan obtained pesticide registration in Japan for a new rice pesticide called Penoxsulamwith similar characteristics to pyraclonil. Moreover, Kumiai Chemical will soon apply for the registration of its new rice herbicide with similar active to pyraclonil, while Sumitomo Chemical and Syngenta Japan have applied for the registration of their new rice herbicides as well.