Soybean seed treatment grows 18% in Brazil and reaches BRL 3.6 billion

The market for pesticides used in soybean seed treatment grew by 18% in the 2023-24 harvest, according to the FarmTrak Soy study by Kynetec Brazil, which AgroPages accessed exclusively.

With this increase, the segment reached BRL 3.6 billion during the period, nearly recovering to the BRL 3.07 billion level from two harvests ago. According to the consultancy's study, 99% of the area cultivated with soybeans in Brazil, a total of 44 million hectares in the last harvest, currently uses treated seeds.

"The use of fungicides, insecticides, and nematicides in seed treatment is a preventive measure aimed at ensuring productive potential and protecting the crop from initial pest and disease attacks," summarized Lucas Lima Alves, a research specialist at Kynetec. According to him, this practice "delivers results such as an adequate plant stand, good initial soybean development, and crop uniformity."

Alves also noted that FarmTrak Soy revealed significant changes related to the profile of product applications in seed treatment.

"There was a significant increase in 'industrial' treatment processes, which reached half of the crops in 2023-24," he said. This business model, he explained, involves delivering treated seeds, ready for sowing, produced by partners such as industries, seed producers, or distributors.

For comparison, Alves mentioned that in the 2014-15 harvest, only 31% of the seeds reached farms with industrial treatment already done. "The soybean grower then had to treat about 70% of the areas themselves, using their own infrastructure," the specialist compared. He explained that "the industrial model ensures precise product doses, ease of handling, and assists in the planting window, among other benefits."

According to the survey, the most commonly used agrochemical categories in industrial soybean seed treatment are insecticides and fungicides, now present in 50% of the cultivated areas. "Nematicides follow, with 8% adoption, but there is a trend of growth in the coming harvests as detected in FarmTrak Soy," Alves added.

Kynetec's survey shows that the Brazilian state of Paraná ranks first in adopting industrial soybean seed treatment, with 85% of the areas, while the lowest rate was recorded in Bahia, with only 11% of the crops. "Regional differences stem from landholding profiles. In Bahia, Mato Grosso, and other cerrado states, larger properties predominate, where there is generally equipment available for industrial-quality seed treatment," the executive explained. "In the South and Southeast, we observe that the service depends more on resellers, cooperatives, seed producers, and other suppliers," Lucas Alves concluded.

The FarmTrak Soy 2023-24 study resulted from more than 3,700 interviews conducted directly with producers across the soybean-growing agricultural frontier.

(Editing by Leonardo Gottems, reporter for AgroPages)

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