Import of pesticides hits record

Brazilian imports of pesticides (active ingredients and intermediate products) hit record in 2012. According to data from the National Union of Agricultural Protection products industry (Sindag) obtained by value, the external purchases grew 10% from 2011, to $ 5.5 billion.
The pesticides are the second most important item in the import account of agricultural sector, behind only the fertilizer. After the United States, Brazil is the largest market (in revenue) for the manufacturers of the product.
Last year, the volume of imported pesticides grew 25.7 percent to 296.81 thousand tons of active ingredient. Only the importation of insecticides increased by 47.9% to 79.2 thousand tons.
In this way, the pesticides imported abocanharam 56.7% of the Brazilian market, which was worth $ 9.7 billion in 2012. In volume, the share of foreigners is even greater-last year, has reached 85.6% of 346.58 thousand tons of active ingredients sold in the country.
According to the imports Sindag accompany the expansion of Brazilian market-last year, sales rose 14.4 percent in the wake of soy and advance of the escalation in commodity prices. Sought, Syngenta, Bayer, DuPont and Basf (segment-leading companies) not commented on the matter. Monsanto claims that already manufactures in the country 100% glyphosate herbicide that sells on the domestic market.
The tendency to import pesticides has grown in recent years. In 2008, the pesticide landings amounted to $ 2.8 billion, or 245.6 thousand tons of active ingredient, which corresponded to just over 39% of revenues and 78% of the volume sold in that year.
For 2011, the participation of imported in total volume grew by 17 percentage points, although the slice in the recipe has retreated 2.2 points. This contradiction is explained by the increase in purchases of cheaper generic products, India and, above all, China.
According to the Sindag, generics accounted for 60.7% of the industry's revenue last year, up from just 43% in 2011. In other words, the participation of patent-protected products and imported mainly from United States, England and Switzerland-ceded almost 57% to 39.2%.
In 2012, the imports of Chinese active ingredients grew 41% to 68.3 million tons. With this, the Asian country surpassed the United States and became the largest supplier of the raw material for Brazil. Its domestic market share grew from 20.4% to 23%, by volume, according to Sindag.
Already the volume imported from India more than doubled last year, to 18.8 million tons. With this, the country overcame Israel and took the fifth position in the ranking, being responsible for 5.65% of active ingredient handled in Brazil-just behind the Switzerland, with 6.2%, and England, with 7%.
Although Brazil is the second largest market for pesticides around the world, the country has a role virtually irrelevant in the production, research and development of products. According to the, the country produces Sindag locally only 10% of the approximately 300 active chemicals used on crops.
The biggest obstacle to expand domestic production, say representatives of the entity, are the costs of production, proportionally higher than the Chinese. In accordance with the wage floor, Sindag for employees of this industry in Brazil is around $ 550, compared with only $ 50 in China.
The Asian country has impressive advantages of scale: last year produced more than 3.5 million tons of pesticides, according to the Institute for the control of agrochemicals in China, linked to the Government. In Brazil, the production did not reach 50 thousand tons, according to the Sindag.
"Since the end of 2004, when the new rules were adopted for the generic registration, entrepreneurs went to the place where he has the lower price, the largest volume of product and number of manufacturers. China is a big consumer market and exports to all over the world, "says Flavio Hirata, consultant of the Allier Brazil, specialized in pesticide registration.