Brazil's Bio-Input Market Outpaces Global Trend: 15% Growth in 2023-24

A survey by Blink Inteligência Aplicada released by CropLife Brasil (CLB) reveals that the Brazilian agricultural biological products industry touched BRL5 billion in sales during the 2023-2024 season. This represented a 15% increase compared to the previous season for the bio-inputs market, which includes pest and disease control products, inoculants, biostimulants, and solubilizers. According to CLB, the average annual growth rate over the past three years was 21%, four times the global average.

Eduardo Leão, CEO of CropLife Brasil, highlighted that the good results came despite the last year being ″challenging for the agricultural inputs industry as a whole.″

″Despite this, the agricultural bio-inputs segment maintained its growth, driven by the cost-benefit ratio of the product and the synergy of adoption with other agricultural technologies. This motivated increased investment in innovation and the expansion of the product portfolio,″ the CEO analyzed.

Eduardo Leão, CEO of CropLife Brasil

Global Market

The global agricultural bio-inputs market in 2023 was valued between US$13 billion and $15 billion, including all segments: control, inoculants, biostimulants, and solubilizers.

The estimated global annual growth rate until 2032 is between 13% and 14%, corresponding to $45 billion, three times higher than the current one. The most representative segment among bio-inputs is biological pest and disease control products, estimated at 57% of the above value. They are expected to continue representing the largest share of this market.

The growth projection is supported by the expectation that the US and Europe will increase the adoption rate of bio-inputs in the production of major crops, similar to Brazil, which has one of the highest rates in the world.

Treated Area

The area treated in Brazil with crop protection (chemical or biological) grew by 15% in the last season compared to the 2021-2022 season. In this same area, the adoption of agricultural bio-inputs grew by over 35%, with a total share of 12% in the 2022-2023 season.

Among the main crops, 55% of Brazil’s total use of bio-inputs is for soybeans, 27% for corn, 12% for sugarcane, and 6% for cotton, coffee, citrus, and horticulture (HF).

The Brazilian state of Mato Grosso was the largest user of agricultural biological products, with 33.4% of the total value. Goiás/Federal District followed with 13%; and São Paulo with 9%; Paraná with 7.9%; and Mato Grosso do Sul and Minas Gerais, with 7.8% each, were among the central states.

A notable factor is the increase in the average adoption rate of bio-inputs per area from the 2022-2023 season to the 2023-2024 season, which rose from 22% to 23% across all segments: biocontrols, inoculants, biostimulants, and solubilizers.

For biofungicides, it increased from 11% to 12%, bioinsecticides from 19% to 21%, bionematicides from 24% to 25%, bioinoculants from 61% to 63%, and nutrient solubilizers from 3% to 4% to the main crops.

Among the crops, the highlights included bionematicides for cotton and soybeans; bioinsecticides for sugarcane and corn; biofungicides for soybeans and corn; and bionematicides and biofungicides for horticulture (HF).

Market Trends

According to CLB, four significant factors contribute to and should sustain the growth of the bio-inputs market in Brazil in the coming years: The first is the continued professionalization and expansion of the industry.

The second is the integrated management of chemical pesticides and biological products with a positive effect on controlling increasingly resistant pests and diseases in tropical agriculture.

The third is the increased adoption among producers, and finally, new formulations and technologies in biological products, increasingly containing multiple microorganisms and a wide range of targets.

The research further indicated that bacterial solutions will continue to dominate the market in the next decade, although virus- and fungus-derived products will increase their market share.

The forecast is that the growth in adopting bio-inputs will continue to be intense and continuous. This scenario encourages the agricultural inputs industry and public and private research to focus on new technologies and innovation, promoting new solutions for biological pest control, nutrition, and physiology.

(Editing by Leonardo Gottems, reporter for AgroPages)

This story was initially published in the 2024 Latin America Focus. Download the magazine to read more stories.

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