Agrochemicals for sugarcane 2022 grow 33% in Brazil

Date:04-24-2023

Sugarcane contributed US$1.67 billion in agrochemicals in the 2022 (fiscal year) in Brazil, Kynetec consultancy revealed to AgroPages.

Growth regulators and other products – adjuvants, pH reducers, inoculants, and oils, mainly – accounted for 4% of the market, totaling $79 million. ″These remained stable from one year to the next,″ Kynetec's market intelligence coordinator, Vitor Hugo Leite added.

According to a new FarmTrak study, this result represented an increase of 33% compared to the previous cycle, when $1.263 billion were traded.

Sugarcane is Brazil’s third most representative crop for the agrochemical industry, behind only soy and the two corn crops grown in the country.

The survey involved face-to-face interviews with 500 mill producers and raw material suppliers, in 243 cities, from last October to January this year.

Herbicides accounted for 55% of the industry's performance: they jumped 40%, to $921 million, against $656 million in 2021.

Insecticides, responsible for 37% of the business, advanced 23%, from $497 million to $613 million.

According to Kynetec, the market growth in dollars was due to the increase in the cost of some products and a greater number of applications.

According to Leite, the insecticide segment is the group of products that grows the most in relative terms, harvest after harvest.

Vitor Hugo Leite, Kynetec's market intelligence coordinator

″The area treated by these inputs almost doubled from 2015 to 2022, from 12.6 million hectares to 23.4 million hectares. There was also a relevant increase in the use of biological products,″ he said.

According to Leite, the increase in the agronomic importance of sugarcane borer and leafhopper pests, in addition to soil insects such as Sphenophorus, termites, and migdolus, has led grass growers to intensify treatments.

″In market value, leafhoppers raised the demand for insecticides by 36% in 2022. Transactions in the sub-segment grew from $168 million to $228 million,″ he said.

The FarmTrak Sugarcane survey also pointed out that the area planted with grass remained in the range of 9.2 million hectares.

The total area treated (PAT) by pesticides in the fiscal year 2022, highlights Kynetec, was approximately 23% above the previous harvest: 79 million hectares, against 64 million hectares.

According to Kynetec, fungicides ranked third in the ranking of sugarcane agrochemicals. Such products amounted to 4% of the total market: $61 million, a figure 32% higher compared to 2021 ($46 million).

(Editing by Leonardo Gottems, reporter for AgroPages)