Summer corn pesticide market falls 16% in Brazil

The FarmTrak Summer Corn 2024-2025 survey, released by agribusiness research company Kynetec Brasil, revealed that the pesticide market for Brazil's second corn crop fell by 16%, to BRL2.4 billion (approximately US$480 million), compared to the 2023-2024 season, when it reached BRL2.9 billion. 

According to the study, the decline in market movement was primarily due to negative variations in product prices. According to Kynetec research specialist Lucas Alves, the 9% decrease in planting areas in the analyzed regions, to 3.611 million hectares, also had an unfavorable impact on the overall performance of crop protection products in summer corn.

By product category, herbicides represented 29% of the total market, with sales of BRL712 million, compared to BRL879 million in the 2023-2024 season. The second-largest segment in transactions, insecticides, accounted for 28% or BRL678 million, compared to BRL826 million in the previous season.

Fungicides accounted for 19% or BRL466 million, compared to BRL482 million in the past cycle. Seed treatment products generated BRL380 million, 16% of the total, and below BRL486 million during the last period.

Nematicides and other products each moved 4% or equal amounts of BRL96 million, compared to BRL98 million and BRL104 million in the 2023-2024 season, respectively.

According to Alves, despite the overall decline in transactions observed in the category, notable pests in the insecticide segment included corn leafhoppers, caterpillars in general, and stink bugs, which together accounted for 98% of sales of these products in summer corn, or approximately BRL664 million.

Seed Market Also Declines

The Kynetec FarmTrak Summer Corn survey indicated that so-called biotechnologies or transgenics occupied 98% of summer corn crops. The seed market reached BRL3.6 billion in the 2024-2025 season, compared to BRL4.4 billion in the 2023-2024 cycle, a decline of about 22%.

According to Lucas Alves, the FarmTrak Summer Corn survey interviewed more than 2,000 farmers from 700 municipalities in the country's main cereal-producing regions.

Among the growing regions, in terms of planted area, the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul appears at the front of Kynetec's survey, with 29% of the total 3.611 million hectares, followed by Minas Gerais (25%), Santa Catarina (13%), Paraná (11%), 'Mapiba' (9%), São Paulo (7%), and the Federal District-Goiás axis (6%).

(Editing by Leonardo Gottems, reporter for AgroPages)