Brazil agrochemical imports up by 10% in 2012

Brazil pesticide imports were up by 10% to a new record of US$ 5,500 million in 2012, according to the data released by the agrochemical trade association, the Sindag. Volume imports of active ingredients rose by 25.7% to 296,810 tons. Insecticide import increased by 47.9%, reaching 79,200 tons.

The imported pesticides accounted up 56.7% of the Brazilian agrochemical sales(US$ 9.71 billion) in 2012. In volume, import share is even higher of last year, reaching 85.6% of the 346,600 tons of ais sold in the country.

The trend to import has been growing in recent years. In 2008, imports only  totalled US$ 2,800 million, equivalent to 245,600 tons of ais volume, which accounted for just over 39% of revenues and 78% of the volume sold in that year.

Compared to 2011, the share of imports in total volume grew by 17%, while the share in revenue declined 2.2%. This contradiction is explained by the increase in purchases of generics and cheaper products from India and especially China.

Sindag shows that 60.7% of industry revenue last year was from generics, compared to 43% in 2011. This means the share of products that were patent protected and imported mainly from the US, UK and Switzerland –decreased from nearly 57% to 39.2%.

In 2012, imports of ais from China grew 41% to 68,300 tons,overtaking the US as the major source of imports. Its domestic market share grew from 20.4% to 23% by volume.

Imports of ais from India more than doubled last year to 18,800 tons, and the country overtook Israel and ranked fifth place, representing 5.65% of the ais handled in Brazil, behind UK with 7% and Switzerland with 6.2%.

Although Brazil is the second largest pesticide market in the world, the country has a role almost irrelevant in the production and R&D of these products. According to Sindag, the country produces locally only 10% of the approximately 300 ais used on the crops.

The biggest barrier to expand domestic production is the cost, proportionately higher than the Chinese, according to the representatives.The minimum wage in the industry in Brazil is US$ 550, compared to US$ 50 in China.

China was also an impressive scale advantage: last year, it produced more than 3.5 million tons of pesticides, according to the Agrochemicals Control Institute of China. In Brazil, the production has not reached 50 tons, according Sindag.It believes that Brazil has no the advantage on labor costs compared with China.

In the year of 2012, the Brazilian agrochemical market increased 14.4%, equivalent to US$ 1.2 billion, reaching new record of US$ 9.71 billion.