Top 10 Indian Agro-news in April 2021

Below are the most-viewed news regarding Indian companies, products, regulation and research that were published on AgroPages in April 2021.

India CIBRC 427th meeting: Novel AIs entry into Indian agrochemical market is accelerating

At this meeting, 12 registration of pesticide technical and 27 formulation products, including 7 herbicides, 7 insecticides/acaricides, 5 fungicides, 1 plant growth regulator and 19 bio-products got approved.

There are four new products being worthy of note: Pyroxasulfone 85% WG, Benzpyrimoxan 93.7% TC, Tetraniliprole 89% TC and Tetraniliprole 18.18% SC, which are respectively analyzed and briefed as follows:

-  Nihon Nohyaku planning to manufacture brand-new insecticide Benzpyrimoxan 93.7% TC in India

-  Bayer’s Pyroxasulfone 85% WG granted import registration in India 

-  Bayer CropScience got new diamide approval – Tetraniliprole 89% TC and 18.18% SC

In view of the recent registrations at CIBRC in India, it reveals that multinational companies (BASF India, ADAMA India, Dow Agrosciences India, Sumitomo Chemical India, FMC India and Syngenta India) have been keen on registrations in Indian. The registrations have involved more and more novel active ingredients, this phenomenon deserves continued attention.

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Bharat Insecticides Ltd. unveils its new identity as Bharat Certis AgriScience Ltd.

Bharat Insecticides Ltd. (BIL), a group company of Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (Mitsui) specializing in crop protection products announced that it has changed its name to ‘Bharat Certis AgriScience Ltd.’ with effect from 1st April 2021. ‘Certis’ is Mitsui’s worldwide brand name of the distribution network for crop protection products, such as Certis USA, Certis Europe etc. and AgriScience shows the company’s commitment to contribute to the increase in productivity of agricultural industry by Science ... ...

PI is amongst the Top 5 players globally in the Agrochem CSM space: Mayank Singhal, VC & MD, PI Industries

Mayank Singhal, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, PI Industries Limited shared his views on global trends on crop protection chemicals, R&D plans, production capacity, key milestones, company’s performance, Capex plans, CSR activities, outlook and much more. Excerpts of the interview: 

What are the global trends in the Crop Protection Chemicals industry in 2021 and how will this impact India?

Mayank Singhal: This year we expect the global crop protection chemicals industry to grow at 2-3 per cent. LATAM and Asia markets will be the growth regions and the same will be the case in India. COVID-19 may have distorted the global supply chains but overall there is minimal impact. Stringent regulations causing some products to go off the market and diversification of the global supply chain will be the major trend ... ...

UPL Europe and Indofil Industries challenge Commission’s non-renewal of mancozeb: action published

Mancozeb is due to be phased out in the EU by 4 January 2022 following the European Commission’s decision late last year not to renew its approval. UPL and Indofil, as members of the EU Mancozeb Task Force, contest the conclusions of the EU assessment. 

UPL Europe of the UK, and Indofil Industries of the Netherlands, have challenged before the General Court (T-742/20) the Commission’s non-renewal of the approval of the active substance mancozeb under the Plant Protection Regulation (1107/2009): official publication has been made of the action, on 19th March 2021 ... ...

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UPL accelerates OpenAg with appointment of Carlos Pellicer as COO

UPL has appointed Carlos Pellicer as Chief Operating Officer, effective immediately. Pellicer has been a key architect of UPL’s integration of Arysta (following its acquisition by UPL two years ago). The company is ‘Reimagining Sustainability, powered by its OpenAg purpose to create sustainable growth for all ... ...

Data: India chemical fertilizer consumption increased by about 16% in the last six years

Data shared by the government recently indicates that the consumption of chemical fertilizers has increased by around 16% between 2015-16 & 2020-21. From about 510 LMT in 2015-16, the consumption increased to 590 LMT as per provisional figures for 2020-21. Even the consumption of chemical pesticides has increased during this period ... ...

Position India as a global hub for chemical manufacturing: Maulik Mehta, CEO, Deepak Nitrite

Maulik Mehta, CEO, Deepak Nitrite Limited shares his views on global trends, company’s performance, R&D plans, supply chain plans, plans of DPL and DNL, expansion plans and CSR activities. Excerpts of the interview:

What are the global trends in the chemical sector and how will it impact India?

Maulik Mehta: The chemical industry across the globe is undergoing a strategic shift in the supply chain from China to India as a source of raw materials. This presents an opportunity for India to be the global hub for chemical manufacturing.

There is an increased focus on downstream value-added products. We expect govt to promote the setting up of new Naphtha cracking units to meet the growing demand for building block chemicals for down-stream industries ... ...

Nouryon and Atul start up monochloroacetic acid plant in India

Nouryon (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) and Atul successfully started production at Anaven, a new joint venture in Gujarat, India, that will help meet the rapidly growing demand in India’s agricultural, personal care and pharmaceutical markets.

Anaven is India’s largest monochloroacetic acid (MCA) production site, with a current capacity of 32,000 tons of MCA per year, with the possibility of a rapid expansion of up to 60,000 tons per year. MCA is used as an essential raw material for a variety of products, such as adhesives, pharmaceuticals and crop protection chemicals. Atul consumes a portion of the MCA directly in its own production of crop protection chemicals ... ...

Setting up complete value chains in India: Rajendra V. Gogri, CMD, Aarti Industries

Rajendra V. Gogri, Chairman & Managing Director, Aarti Industries Limited shares his views on global trends on Speciality Chemicals and pharma, plans for FY 2021-22. Excerpts of the interview:

What are the global trends in speciality chemicals in 2021 and how will it impact India?

Rajendra V. Gogri: The global trends in speciality chemicals are a well-known combination of global companies diversifying their supply chain with a China+1 strategy, as well as the US-China trade issues and China’s environmental policies driving many opportunities and interest in sourcing from India ... ...

Rallis India - Q4FY21RU - New Strategy paying off, Focus on new products and expanding reach

Despite seasonally weak quarter, Rallis still reported commendable performance with positive operating margins as well as bottom-line. Q4FY21 revenues surged 36.1% YoY at ₹ 4.7bn (₹ 3.5bn) while operating profit came in at ₹ 178mn (loss of ₹ 99mn) and PAT at ₹ 82mn (₹ 6mn, due to exceptional income). 

Similarly, for FY21E, Rallis reported good 7.9% top-line growth with healthy 180bps YoY operating margin expansion at 13.3% (11.5%) leading to 24.8% YoY surge in bottom-line at ₹ 2.2bn (₹ 1.8bn). Growth for the quarter and year was driven by volumes while pricing declined marginally despite ~40% decline witnessed in one of the international molecules, Metribuzin. Management indicated that pricing of Metribuzin is recovering since Q3 and shall recover in coming quarters ... ...