AgroPages-Top 20 Brazilian agrochem firms in 2015: Fall in sales and market share more centralized to top 10 companies-Agricultural news

Leonardo Gottems

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Official data from the Brazilian National Union of Crop Protection Products Industry (Sindiveg) has confirmed that there was a significant fall in sales of agrochemicals in Brazil in 2015. There was a reduction in sales of 21.56%, compared to 2014, with losses estimated at US$ 9.6 billion. The share of soybeans fell from 56% in 2014 to 52%. Data from Kleffman Group says that the reduction in Brazil contributed significantly to the first decrease in a global level in this decade with 9.8% - or US$ 54.6 billion – ending a growth cycle of five years.

The reasons presented by Sindiveg for the decrease in sales were the devaluation of the Real during this period, higher levels of smuggling of agrochemicals and difficulties in obtaining credit, affecting the total number of purchases.

Divided into categories, insecticides continue to be the largest selling products, but plummeted 35.2% in 2015 sales, compared to 2014. The second category in line was still herbicides, followed by the “other agrochemicals” and, lastly, acaricides. The demand for these products was higher for seed treatment in the field because of the growing number of plagues, but the agrochemicals market lost ground to the illegal trade of products. Some studies say that smuggled products make up about 20% of the total sales in the South American country.

Sindiveg cited, as an example of the volume of the illegal trade, the surplus of US$ 110 million of Paraguayan imports of emamecticin benzoate, in spite of it being needed. This active ingredient is likely to have been supplied to Brazil through the black market.

"The illegal market is a major problem in the sector, not only because of economic reasons, but mostly because of issues related to food security and the risk of contamination of the environment. We do not recognize the security of these products and, as a result, the food on the table of the population does not pass through the scrutiny of regulatory agencies,” said Sílvia Fagnani, executive-vice-president of Sindiveg.

The state that has registered more consumption of agrochemicals in 2015 was Mato Grosso, with 23% of the total, followed by São Paulo, Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul – all tied at 13%.

Data from the National Association of Crop Protection Companies (Aenda) diverge from data on the Brazilian market of the National Union of the Industries of Crop Protection Products (Sindiveg). According to Aenda, the total revenue from the Brazilian market of phytosanitary products was US$ 10.04 billion in 2015.

Further, revenue statistics from agchem companies reveal that the first ten companies concentrate US$ 8.49 billion in sales, which means that they have captured at least 84.52% of the total Brazilian market. The result represents a significant decrease, compared to 2014, when the top 10 major companies sold US$ 10.12 billion. On the other hand, there was an increase of market concentration between the top 10 of about 1.5 percentage point.

Sales of top Brazilian agrochemicals companies
Ranking of 2015 (2014)	Company¹	Sales of 2015 (US$ mn)	Sales of 2014 (US$ mn)	Change%
1 (1)	Syngenta	1,943	2,238	-13.2
2 (2)	Bayer CropScience	1,837	2,070	-11.3
3 (3)	BASF	1,005	1,100	-8.6
4 (-)	FMC + Cheminova	760	-	-
5 (4)	DuPont	721	1,012	-28.8
6 (6)	Dow AgroSciences	635	790	-19.6
7 (7)	Monsanto²	434	610	-28.9
8 (8)	ADAMA Brasil	408	506	-19.4
9 (9)	Nufarm³	393	490	-19.8
10 (-)	Arysta + Chemtura	355	-	-
11 (14)	UPL⁴	342	278	+23.0
12 (10)	IHARA	315	418	-24.6
13 (12)	Nortox	224	320	-30.0
14 (15)	Ourofino	150	145	+3.4
15 (-)	CCAB	145	-	-
16 (16)	Helm	135	125	+8.0
17 (18)	Rotam Brasil	116	105	+10.5
18 (-)	Consagro	25	-	-
19 (20)	Atanor do Brasil	10	53	-81.1
¹Sales of all companies excluded seed and trait business sales. ² 2015 and 2014 fiscal year up until 31 August 2015 and 2014. ³ 2015 and 2014 fiscal year up until 31 July 2015 and 2014. ⁴ 2015 and 2014 fiscal year up until 31 March 2016 and 2015.

The leadership in agrochemical sales in Brazil continues to be held by Syngenta, though they suffered a decrease in sales of US$ 295 million last year, compared to 2014. The results referred to the last year before the sale of the company to ChemChina. One of the major products responsible for the high performance of the company in Brazil was Elatus fungicide, used to combat Asian Rust, a disease that accounts for losses of 70% to 100% on soybean yields in Brazil.

The second placed company, Bayer, also suffered a decrease of US$ 233 million in its sales in Brazil in 2015, in comparison with 2014. The CropScience division registered a decrease in sale worldwide, but especially in Latin America due to “political uncertainty, the macroeconomic scenario and less pressure by pests.” Nevertheless, the multinational has shown that it will continue to operate in the country and open two new agricultural research institutes as part of its innovation center in Paulínia (SP).

Following in the ranking is BASF, which has maintained its third position with a smaller decrease in sales (US$ 95 million), compared to its competitors. According to the company, its problem in Brazil was the same as in other Latin American countries: “A volatile [political/economic] environment and the devaluation of local currencies, especially in emerging markets, had a negative effect on our business”, according to a company statement.

In fourth position, FMC surpassed DuPont, after acquiring Cheminova in April of 2015, thus integrating its portfolio. Positioned in fifth place, DuPont also announced an agreement to merge with Dow (sixth position), but the operation was announced only in December of 2015, not seeing results of the sales of the companies in that year.

Monsanto and Adama maintained seventh and eighth places, respectively, compared to the commercial performance of 2015 with 2014. “The largest new entrant on the list of ten major agrochemical companies in terms of sales was Arysta, which entered in tenth place after its acquisition by Platform Specialty Products Corporation, which has unified the company portfolio to Chemtura (also acquired by the Platform group) – which moved Ihara out of the top 10.