Japan agchem sales down 2% in FY 2015

Japanese agrochemical sales fell by 1.9% to 337,443 million yen ($2,733.3 million at the current rate) in the fiscal year of 2015 ended September 30th 2015, according to the Japan Crop Protection Association (JCPA). Sales volume also dropped by 4.6% to 186,581 tons.
 

Sales in volume and value of all categories were down to some degree. Insecticides were the biggest section in sales volume, down by 8.3% to 63,059 tons, while sales in value dipped by 4.0% to 98,424 million yen (($ 797.2 million). Herbicides were the biggest category in sales value, slipped by 2.0% to 116,683 million yen (($ 945.1 million), sales volume was down by 1.8% to 60,382 tons. Sales in volume and value of fungicides were down by 3.2% and 0.1% to 37,952 tons and 74,840 million yen (($ 606.2 million), respectively. Insecticides/fungicides mixtures decreased by 2.8% and 0.8% in volume and value to 20,332 tons and 37,612 million yen (($ 304.7 million), respectively.

 

Sales of the paddy-field application category were down by 4.4% to 120,834 million yen ($ 978.8 million) and volume decreased by 7.7% to 63,261 tons. Almost half of herbicides were used for paddy crops. Sales for vegetable/upland farms application posted a 1.3% decrease to 119,138 million yen (($ 965 million), just a little less than paddy section. Sales for fruit trees application fell 0.9% at 49,779 million yen (($ 403.2 million), and volume was down by 4.1% to 18,673 tons.