Deputy Director of ICAMA: China’s agrochemical industry is courageous and responsible to fulfill the obligations to the world economy and agriculture

2021 China Pesticide Exporting Workshop(CPEW) has successfully held in Sep 28-29, experts from ICAMA, China’s Ministry of Agriculture, China’s Ministry of Commerce of, Syngenta, UPL, Corteva, and other advantageous pesticide companies in China, Brazil, Mexico, Africa gave presentations in this event. These experts exchanged and shared information on the development trend of China's pesticide industry and the dynamics of the global market. 

Yan Duanxiang, Deputy Director of ICAMA gave a speech to summarize the development of China's pesticide industry in the past two years and interpreted the current industry policies. The following is part of Yan's speech.

If you want to watch the complete speech of Yan Duangxiang, together with all the other speakers’ presentation, please register for Virtual Participation of 2021 CPEW.

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The great contributions from Chinese pesticide industry to the world agriculture in the pandemic 

In 2019, China's pesticide exports volume totaled 1.85 million tons. With the COVID-19 sweeping the world in 2020, the resumption of work and production in many countries has been affected, and their production capacity were difficult to release. Distributors in these countries have put forward requirements for the supply of various pesticide products to China. China's pesticide industry has lived up to its expectations. Processing and R&D, as well as all the technicals and formulations, are at full capacity. In the whole year of 2020, except for the negative growth in production and negative export growth in February, the other 11 months are all with positive growth, and relatively large export growth rate has been maintained.

As a result, China’s pesticide exports jumped from 1.85 million tons in 2019 by 550,000 tons, reaching nearly 2.4 million tons. I think the average country is unbearable to grow so much volume, but China's pesticide industry has the courage to take on it, so that our production capacity can be fully released.

This year, the pandemic in overseas have continued. China’s pesticide exports from January to August have increased by 1.51% from last year’s basis, and the export volume has increased by 7.1% on a 100% basis. The domestic pesticide production capacity has been released as much as possible, which shows that China’s pesticides industry is courageous and responsible. It not only meets the needs of one hundred and ninety countries in the world in terms of quantity, but also greatly improves the credibility of our industry and the world's dependence on us. 

The current situation of Chinese agrochemical industry

Due to various reasons, there have been great changes in the price of pesticides in China over a period of time. This change is beneficial to Chinese pesticide companies at the moment, but will be severe fluctuations in the long run, to impact the entire industry to develop steadily and healthily. How do we release production capacity and how to appropriately limit production capacity so that prices will not fluctuate? This is something we must seriously think about.

It now appears that price fluctuations are not only caused by certain bulk products. In fact, we are under the severe impact of the pandemic and at the same time by our commitment to the world’s climate change. Our country implements high-efficiency and high-quality development of various industries, while also being responsible for population, resources and relationships. The reasons are complicated.

Although we have made full use of our capacity to contribute to the world's agrochemical industry, being responsible to guarantee the agricultural production of various countries, if we put stress on one certain country, the country may not have the ability to complete it. Therefore, more cooperation in all aspects is needed. At present, it is mainly cooperation in epidemic prevention and control, so that the world economy can truly circulate normally. At the same time, we must act on the dual-carbon control, carbon peaking, and carbon neutrality we promised to the world. If you promise, you have to act. If you want to act, you will need to control some high-consumption and high-pollution production capacity, and you will control some non-high-quality, high-efficiency industries.

I think some of our policies are not only for the long-term and high-quality development of China's economy, but also for the world economy, the world's environmental protection, and the world's corresponding commitments in fulfilling our obligations and making our contributions. So don’t think that the simple issue is the limitation of production capacity. It is related to the prevention and control of the epidemic, the development of the economy as a whole, our commitment to the world, the control of climate issues, and the improvement of China’s population, resources and environment.

ICAMA registration policy

ICAMA began to implement the new regulations on June 1, 2017. The changes have been relatively large, and the registration threshold has also been raised accordingly. So before implementing the new requirements, we established a four-year transition period. Now this transitional period has passed. In the future, the registration data requirements will all be implemented in accordance with the new data requirements. And there may be more stringent new requirements. The registration review process will also be implemented. It may take a longer time for a new pesticide product to actually register and go on the market.

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If you have question about China's pesticide regulation and industry development trend, welcome to leave your question under the presentation video page and interact with Deputy Director Yan Duanxiang.