Africa Watch: Imports of fungicides in African market on the rise

In the latest feedback to the Survey: Africa's Pesticide Importing Status, many readers pointed out that sales of fungicides in the African market are increasing. They also hope that AgroPages can analyze some key products, such as Mancozeb, Azoxystrobin and Chlorothalonil. Therefore, in this issue of African Watch, we will analyze the fungicides imported to Africa from China.

Based on statistics from the China Pesticide Export Analysis System, we discovered that the fungicides imported from China to Africa are mainly formulations, with technicals making up less than 10%. Therefore, we mainly focused on the import features and potential of formulations.

Analysis of Import Volumes of Formulations

According to data from 2019, Mancozeb become the leading first-tier fungicide with a quantity of over 7,000 tons. There is also a huge gap between imports of Mancozeb and other fungicides. Second-tier varieties included Chlorothalonil, Thiophanate-methyl, Carbendazim, Azoxystrobin, Tebuconazole and Difenoconazole, with import volumes is some 500 to 1,000 tons. The combined import volume of the remaining varieties was not large, not exceeding 21.70% of total.

From 2015 to 2019, the import volume of Mancozeb showed an overall downward trend from nearly 8,500 tons in 2015 to around 7,500 tons in 2019, an average annual decrease of 3.3%.

Although the import volumes of second-tier varieties have fluctuated over the past five years, the overall trend is increasing. The biggest increase was seen in Tebuconazole (26.21%), followed by Chlorothalonil (19.28%) and Azoxystrobin (18.34%).

In addition, we found that the average growth rates of Pyraclostrobin and Prochloraz reached 24.84% (2016-2019) and 13.70% (2015-2019), respectively, highlighting a growth in demand for new fungicides in some African markets.

Chart 1: Trend in the first-tier fungicide (Mancozeb) imports volume from China to Africa (2015 to 2019) 
Unit: kg

Chart 2: Trends of second-tier fungicides import volumes from China to Africa (2015 to 2019)
Unit: kg

Chart 3: Trends of some novel fungicides import volumes from China to Africa (2015 to 2019)
Unit: kg

Analysis of Leading Import Countries and Formulations

The top five countries that imported Mancozeb in 2019 are Tanzania, Egypt, Rwanda, Cameroon and Ghana, accounting for 68.20% of all African imports.

Tanzania's importation of Mancozeb has ranked first in Africa over the past five years, while South Africa's fell from second in 2018 to fifteenth in 2019, and Egypt has always been in the top three.

The main imported formulations of Mancozeb in the African market are Mancozeb 80% WP, Mancozeb 64%+Metalaxyl 8% WP, and Cymoxanil 8%+Mancozeb 64% WP.

The top five countries that imported Chlorothalonil in 2019 are Tanzania, Cameroon, South Africa, Kenya and Egypt, accounting for 88.75% of all imports to Africa.

Over the past five years, Tanzania's imports of Chlorothalonil ranked first in Africa, accounting for almost half of total imports, while Cameroon has always been in the top three.

The main imported formulations of Chlorothalonil in the African market are Chlorothalonil 40% SC and Chlorothalonil 720g/L SC.

The top five countries that imported Azoxystrobin in 2019 are South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Uganda and Djibouti, accounting for 78.41% of total imports.

From 2017 to 2019, the top three countries importing Azoxystrobin have been South Africa, Egypt and Kenya. In 2015 and 2016, Djibouti's imports of Azoxystrobin were higher than Kenya's and ranked in the top three.

The main imported formulations of Azoxystrobin in the African market are Azoxystrobin 25% SC and Azoxystrobin 250g/L SC.

The top five countries that imported Pyraclostrobin in 2019 are Ethiopia, South Africa, Egypt, Angola and Cameroon, accounting for 87.90% of Africa's total imports.

In 2016 and 2017, only two or three countries in Africa imported Pyraclostrobin. By 2019, eleven African countries imported Pyraclostrobin.

The formulations of Pyraclostrobin imported by African countries are quite diverse. Boscalid 25%+Pyraclostrobin 10% SC, Metiram 55%+Pyraclostrobin 5% WG and Pyraclostrobin 50% WG are the main imported formulations in Africa.

The top five countries that imported Prochloraz in 2019 are Egypt, Tanzania, Angola, Kenya and Senegal, accounting for 99.89% of Africa's total imports.

Egypt's imports of Prochloraz have ranked first in Africa since 2016 and is still increasing year by year.

The main Prochloraz formulations imported from Africa is Prochloraz 45% EW.