AgroPages-Top 20 Brazilian Agrochem Firms in 2014: Grew under Adverse Market Conditions-Agricultural news

Leonardo Gottems

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Agrochemical sales reached US$ 12.25 billion during 2014 in Brazil, up by 7% compared with last year, numbers from the National Union of Crop Protection Products Industry (Sindiveg) reveal. The share of soybeans in this total market reached 56% or US$ 6.86 billion. Sales growth of the agrochemical business of Brazil has experienced average annual growth of 13.1% over the last five years, making Brazil become the most fast-growing agrochemical market all over the world.

Split into categories, insecticides accounted for 40% of the total sales with US$ 4.89 billion, followed by herbicides with US$ 3.90 billion approximately (31.9%), fungicides with nearly US$ 2.91 billion (23.7%), acaricides with US$ 116 million (0.9%) and other products with US$ 429 million (3.5%).

The list of top 20 companies in the 2014 fiscal year shows that the top 10 companies achieved total sales of US$ 10.12 billion, accounting for 83% of the total market value. Sales of top 20 companies reached US$ 12.06 billion, accounting for 98.4% of total market value. Most of these companies obtained sales growth in 2014, meanwhile, sales of BASF, Sipcam and Ourofino slipped a little and IHARA and Nortox received flat revenues. The newcomer in the list, Ourofino, ranked No. 15 with sales of US$ 145 million in 2014. Consagro Agroquimica who ranked No. 19 in the list of 2013 fell out of the top 20 list of 2014 due to significant sales decline.

Syngenta has maintained the leadership with US$ 2.24 billion approximately sold in 2014. The sales jumped from US$ 2.1 billion in 2013. Bayer followed in second with US$ 2.07 billion and BASF appeared in third with US$ 1.1 billion.

According to Syngenta, Elatus™ fungicide was the top-selling product with sales reached US$ 300 million in Brazil.

In a statement released in January this year, Syngenta pointed out that the strong demand for insecticides was pushed by "outbreaks of pest caterpillar on soybeans, corn and cotton”.

Bayer CropScience highlighted the launch of new technology in the Brazilian market such as Veritas™, an advanced technology designed to boost the efficiency of soybean and dry bean crops. Fungicide Fox® (trifloxystrobin + prothioconazole) and insecticide Belt® (flubendiamide) also improved their performances comparing to 2013, the German company says. Another German company BASF recorded a sales decline of some 15% due to negative currency effects and the pressure exerted on insecticides by generic products. But the company’s innovative fungicide Xemium® (fluxapyroxad) and herbicide Kixor® (saflufenacil) performed especially well.

DuPont has beaten FMC with US$ 1.01 billion of sales, jumping from US$ 870 million in 2013. DuPont also lied just less than US$ 100 million behind BASF. The following companies, Dow and Monsanto, did not change their positions and did not have a significant sales change compared with the previous year. The other companies positioned in the top 20 also have pretty similar rankings and sales comparing to 2013. Even improving its results, DuPont, which does not have public stocks in Brazil, did not express satisfaction or optimism. The director of the Brazilian unit, Ricardo Vellutini said that the market "had unfavorable conditions, especially the devaluation of the Real against the U.S. dollar".

In the meantime, FMC recorded a slight sales growth of 0.9% due to slow demand, reduction of cotton acreage, continued dry conditions impacting sugarcane and higher than normal channel inventories."Over the last four years, we have repositioned corn and soybean as strategic pillar. In order to grow in the Brazilian market, we have to increase our share considering these two crops," FMC's commercial director, Carlos Alberto Baptista, said. For 2020, the company's goal is to have at least 10% of share of the country's market.

ADAMA and Nufarm both saw sales rise by nearly 16%, the former company highlighted that their strongest growth in 2014 has been in Latin America, especially Brazil. Nufarm’s sales were driven by its differentiated ‘Crucial’ glyphosate formulation as well as the successful introduction of a number of new products.

UPL/DVA posted a 14.4% increase in sales, the company commented that the revenue was affected by lower commodity prices coupled with sharp decline in valuation of currencies particularly the Brazilian Real. Rotam’s sales were boosted by 31% in Brazil in 2014. This outperformance was driven by strong demand of Rotam’s insecticides and the launch of new products in key markets, such as sugarcane and soybean. In addition, Rotam’s seed treatment business continues to propel its market access into soybean and corn. Chemtura experienced strong demand in Brazil due both to a high level of demand for pest control in the soybean market and the growth in cultivated acreage.

The difference between Syngenta and the last company in the top 20 ranking list is more than US$ 2 billion - with the disparity shown last year continuing. The top five companies have accounted more sales than all other firms combined.

During the first semester of last year, most sales were attributed to combat the boll weevil on cotton crops in the North-eastern state of Bahia. At the second half of 2014, the spread of caterpillar Helicoverpa armigera (or Bollworm) was highlighted with several states prolonging the phytosanitary emergency, which legally allows the use of different agrochemicals.