Biopesticide market expected to rise in North America

The North American microbial biopesticides market is estimated to be worth $127m at user-level in 2007; an increase of 16.3 percent since 2004.
The US is the biggest user of microbials in the region with a market estimated to be worth $101m (79.7 percent of the total), followed by Mexico and then Canada.

The proportion of the market taken by Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt)-based products has declined from an estimated 90 percent in the 1990s to 56.8 percent in 2007. This has been due partly to a steady down-turn in Bt use for caterpillar control and partly to increased sales of new products. The caterpillar Bt market in the US has declined in the face of competition from recently introduced chemicals. The Mexican Bt market has also declined, most notably in cotton and corn, in the face of competition from agrochemicals, GM crops and other biological controls.

The fastest growing sectors in the US have been the fungicidal product based on Bacillus pumilus and codling moth granulosis virus. Prospects for growth in sales in the US overall remain good although there is no evidence for the meteoric rise predicted earlier in the decade.

Although overall growth in the biopesticide market in North America has not lived up to the expectations of the 1990s, the potential remains high and opportunities exist which have the potential to raise the total market to $250 million by 2020.