China’s tembotrione registration process accelerated, Limin’s subsidiary granted registration of tembotrione 97% TC

On August 16, China’s agrochemical company Limin Co., Ltd disclosed that after continuous effort on research and development, the company’s tembotrione industrialization technology has become matured. On June 20, 2023, the technical upgrade project of the subsidiary Limin Chemical for production of new crop protection product series passed the expert review (safety condition), covering 500 tons of tembotrione technical, 1,100 tons of difenoconazole technical and 3,000 tons of zineb technical.

The registration of tembotrione 97% TC filed by Limin Chemical, a subsidiary of Limin Co., Ltd, has been approved, enabling Limin Co., Ltd to become one of the top five tembotrione technical registrants in China.

According to China Pesticide Information Network, there are currently five tembotrione technical registrations in China, being respectively tembotrione technical 98% TC of Shandong Hailir, tembotrione technical 95% TC of Anhui Jiuyi Agricultural Co., Ltd, tembotrione technical 96% TC of Shandong Weifang Rainbow Co., Ltd, tembotrione technical 97% TC of Jiangxi Tianyu Chemical Co., Ltd and tembotrione technical 97% TC of Limin Chemical Co., Ltd, a subsidiary of Limin Co., Ltd.

In 2023, tembotrione ushered in a surged registration in China. So far, there have been 22 registrations of tembotrione products in China, including five technical materials, 16 single agents in addition to technical materials, as well as one mixture.

Tembotrione is a triketone HPPD inhibiting herbicide developed by Bayer, which has the properties of broad herbicidal spectrum, strong systemicity and high safety, being mainly used in corn field to control grassy weeds such as crab grass and green foxtail, as well as broad-leaved weeds such as amaranth, goosefoot, mustard green, morning glory and nettle. Moreover, it can also be used in sunflower, sugar cane and non-crop field.

Tembotrione has a good herbicidal activity throughout the growing life of crops, being resistant to rain wash and safe for crops (including after-reap crops). It is today still one of the best sellers of Bayer.

The patents of tembotrione in Europe (EP1117639), China (CN1269800C) and the United States (US6376429B1) already expired in 2019.

Since its launch, tembotrione has been highly recognized by users, its sale has been rising all the way. In 2009, tembotrione sale was approximately US$30 million, which later reached US$245 million in 2019, at a compound annual growth rate of 23.4%. From 2009 to 2014, its compound annual growth rate reached as high as 51.6%, which is far higher than all other HPPD inhibiting herbicides.

So far as the current common corn field herbicides are concerned, with the gradual phaseout of atrazine, the sale of tembotrione still has a great prospect. Furthermore, Bayer and Syngenta have reached an agreement to jointly develop HPPD herbicide-resistant soybean, which involves tembotrione. At the same time, the registration of tembotrione in China is promising. By referencing to overseas registrations, the development of novel formulations and the expanded registration of tembotrione would facilitate the market development of tembotrione.