Sales of top 20 Japanese agchem firms representing above 85% of the total

Date:06-24-2015

- Top 20 Japanese agrochemical firms accounting for above 85% of the total market share
- The Japanese agrochemical market is mature and stable
- The sales of multinationals share 25% total sales and appeared no increase even decrease

According to the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (JMAFF), Japanese agrochemical market value in 2013 reached $2.99 billion, 2-3% up year on year.

The entry level to 2012-2013 top 20 Japanese agrochemicals is JPY 4.7 billion. The sales of the No.1 Syngenta is 32.3 JPY billion. Its market share is only about 8.9% and only 6.8 times of the No.20 ranking Hokusan Co Ltd. Though 1.9% of decrease was shown, Syngenta was still the No. 1 in Japan. No big scale of sales was found in Top 5 companies. Since Japanese enterprises are also international transnational companies and also own patent products. Japanese local enterprises have performed very well in local market although foreign transnational companies are important players in the market. As seen from the sales of the top 20, the top 10 achieved total sales of JPY 233.4 billion accounting for 62.4% of the total market value. There are total of 4,361 products registered in Japan until 2015 and about 200 products are registered every year, and almost the same number of products is abolished. Performance of new products have influence much on sales results. So companies are always developing new products containing new AIs and new combinations. The rest 15% of the market is shared by other companies.

Sales of top 20 Japanese agrochemical firms in 2013
Ranking	Company	2012-2013 sales1 (million JPY)	2011-2012 sales2 (million JPY)	Change %
1	Syngenta Japan K.K.	32,264	32,902	-1.9
2	Nissan Chemical Industries, Co., Ltd.	31,580	29,752	6.1
3	Sumitomo Chemical.	29,134	26,802	8.7
4	Bayer CropScience.	28,304	28,298	0.0
5	Kumiai chemical	26,328	23,247	13.3
6	Hokko Chemical Industry Co.,Ltd.	22,280	22,048	1.1
7	MITSUI CHEMICALS AGRO, INC	18,543	18,594	-0.3
8	Nihon Nohyaku.	17,673	18,042	-2.0
9	Nippon Soda Co.,Ltd.	13,388	13,348	0.3
10	Kyoyu Agri.	12,042	12,996	-7.3
11	Dow Chemical Japan Ltd.	11,686	11,927	-2.0
12	BASF Japan Ltd	11,364	12,571	-9.6
13	AGRO-KANESHO CO., LTD.	10,836	10,384	4.4
14	Ishihara Sangyo Kaisha,Ltd.	11,829	10,988	7.7
15	Du Pont K.K.	7,236	7,954	-9.0
16	Meiji Seika pharma Co., Ltd.	6,806	6,833	-0.4
17	Sumitomo chemical garden products inc.	6,753	6,714	0.6
18	OAT Agrio Co., Ltd.	5,964	5,104	16.8
19	Hokusan Co Ltd	5,181	5,129	1.0
20	Arista LifeScience Corporation	4,725	4,605	2.6
Others	-	57,736	53,721	7.5
Total	-	371,650	361,957	2.7
Note:Processed data based on the latest JMAFF statistics reported by pesticide companies 1 2012-2013: from Oct 2012 to Sept 2013 2 2011-2012: from Oct 2011 to Sept 2012

Among the top 20, 12 achieved a growth, of which 2 achieved two-digit growth. Eight companies suffered a slight drop and half of them are transnational companies. The Top 10 seems no change except Sumitomo Chemical and Bayer Cropsicence changed their position. Sumitomo achieved an 8.7% growth and replaced Bayer Cropscience of no growth now ranked No.3. The annual sales reached JPY 29.1billion Yen (only Japanese market, oversea sales were not included). It is supported by its strong developing attractive new products in-house, in-licensing new products and pursuing partnerships. Sumitomo also increased production capacity: build a new plant to produce flumioxazin in Oita, Japan; as well as a decrease in selling and other costs.Kumiai chemical ranked No.5 and achieved an annual sales of JPY 26.3 billion yen and a rate of.13.3% growth. In this year, herbicide was of the best performance in this year with growth rate reaching 34%. Kumiai benefited from the herbicide sales in rice field, additionally also some novel fungicide in horticulture, and in non-crop area.

Five foreign tansnational enterprises in Japan were found no growth even decrease of sales. Syngenta ranking No.1 was 1.9% decrease. Bayer Cropscience ranking No. 4 dropped from No. 3 because of 0% growth. Dow Chemical Japan Ltd ranking No. 11 was found a decreasing rate of 2.0%. Both BASF ranking 12 and Dupont ranking 15 were faced a more than 9.0% decrease rate. This means their products became less attractive for farmers.

It is worth noting that OAT Agrio Co., Ltd. ranking No. 18 showed a growth rate of 16.8%. It was the fastest sales growing company in Top 20. The sale was JPY 5.9 billion Yen. Performance of insecticide in this year was with growth rate 32%. It will bring future growth that OAT established OAT & IIL india Laboratories Private Limited based on an agreement with Insecticides (India) Limited. It also launched the fungicide Gatten in Japan.

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