Brazil agchem sales may up 6% in 2014

The sales of crop protection products in Brazil may reach $12.2 billion in 2014, according to a release of the country's National Association of Crop Protection Products Industries (Sindiveg). With a sales 6% higher than in 2013, this is the biggest increase in the chemical sector and also the second biggest in the fine chemical industry.

 

The sales of the sector correspond to a slice of 27% of the total of the fine chemical industry, according to the Brazilian Association of the Fine Chemical Industries, Biotechnologies and its Specialties. "We are satisfied to end the year with a 6% growth, but we are cautious in 2015," said Eduardo Daher, executive director at the National Association of Crop Protection.

 

The sector had an expectation of an even higher increase in 2014 - between 6% and 9%. According to Daher, the scenario already starts to be drawn by factors such as the recovery of the American crop shaken by a severe drought in the last two years, elevated world stocks of corn and soybeans, and the extended drought in Brazil. This set of factors pressing down the prices of agricultural products, leading farmers to reduce planting and use less agchem.

 

The drought also drops sales of fungicides because of a less fungus incidence over the crops. However, drought favors the proliferation of pests such as flies and caterpillars. According to the union's executive director, the use of agchem is often balanced among herbicides, insecticides and fungicides, each representing one third of the total sales. But in 2013, with higher incidence of insects, the insecticide sales reached 42% and a forecast that reached 45% in 2014.

 

In 2013, the revenue of agchem increased 18% reaching $11.454 billion. The herbicides market has grown 19% to $3.739 billion, and the fungicides had an increase of 5% to $2.59 billion. Acaricide sales expanded 18% reaching $119 million. 

 

The crops that needed more crop protection products were soybeans (52%), cane (10.1%), corn (9.5%), and cotton (9.1%). In 2014 this distribution should be repeated with just the exception of corn, whose planting area may drop 5% due to the prices fall – more pronounced than soybeans. The Brazilian state that consumes more agchem is Mato Grosso, the largest grains producer, which absorbed 22% agrochemicals in 2013, followed by São Paulo (14%), Paraná (12%) and Rio Grande do Sul (11%).

 

Most of the Brazilian market is supplied by imports that reached 344,000 tons in 2013 - 25% more than in 2012, at the cost of $7.4 billion increased by 14%. The Brazilian consumption jumped from $3.3 billion in 2006 to $12.2 billion forecast in 2014, is one of the largest market in the world, which is equivalent to 20% of the world's market, according to a study of Bain & Company.