Chronicle of China's pesticide industry in 2009    
-- high efficiency, lower toxicity, and environment-friendliness
By Sun Zhujun

2009 was a relatively hard year for the pesticide industry. China made policy adjustments on a large scale, and further policies favorable to farmers were put into effect. The in-depth adjustment seems to provide growing potential for a higher and stronger standard of living in the future. Viewing from the past year's reforms, policies and other changes in the pesticide industry, it is apparent that competitiveness will increasingly rely on the technological level and innovative capability of the enterprise. As industry becomes more and more concentrated, core enterprises become fewer and fewer and various policies become more stringent, plenty of small and medium scale enterprises face increasing probability of elimination.     -- EDITOR'S NOTE


A. Overall disabling fipronil

On February 1st, the Ministry of Agriculture of China issued an announcement that it will no longer register or certify the production of fipronil-containing pesticide formulations except to be applied for hygiene, drought resistance seed coating agent and exports, effective July 1st, 2009. The existing fipronil technical material manufacturers shall be allowed to produce fipronil-containing pesticides formulations only for export. Fipronil-containing pesticides formulations shall not be sold or used in China for any other purposes. All existing registrations and certificates for other purposes shall be revoked. The reserved manufacturers are required to strengthen their management of production, marketing and use, and to establish a traceability system. Shortly after that, on February 25th, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Environmental Protection jointly issued Announcement 1157 and set October 1st, 2009 as the date to ban the use of fipronil-containing pesticides formulations, which means fipronil have already been completely banned from use in China.
   Announcement 1157 announced the end of an era when fipronil was the main insecticide for rice and symbolizes the pesticide industry's entry into an epoch of high efficiency, low toxicity and environmental friendliness. All the attendees at the ninth pesticides seminar held in Shanghai at the end of September 2009 reached an agreement that China should strive to develop environmentally friendly pesticides with high efficiency and low toxicity and ensure the environment's security and the health of mankind as well as security of the food supply. It is expected that the future market for rice pesticides or even the whole pesticide industry will find newly developing opportunities and it is inevitable that the new, environmentally friendly pesticides will gradually replace the traditional pesticides. Weak firms will be weeded out of the industry and the integration of advantages can hardly be avoided.


B. Goodbye to the 10% glyphosate formulation

On February 25th, 2009 the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Environmental Protection jointly issued Announcement 1158, stipulating that registration of glyphosate formulations whose content of active ingredient is less than 30% shall be stopped immediately and companies with registration certificates for dilute formulations should increase the concentration by December 31st, 2009 and stop selling dilute formulations.
   China was the only country in the world producing and selling 10% glyphosate formulations at that time. As the 10% glyphosate formulations are generally made from the industrial waste water that is produced in the manufacture of glyphosate active ingredients, through concentrating and blending, it contains many harmful pollutants. While its cost is very attractive, its application can seriously harm the environment. This dirty recycling process helped some glyphosate producers minimize investment in the treatment of waste water. Therefore, it seriously disturbed pricing the domestic herbicide market and cheated farmers. On the surface, Announcement 1158 required the pesticide makers to update and alter the technology and content of 47 pesticides like glyphosate and avermectin. In reality, it reveals the government's determination to regulate the pesticide market and solve the problems of pesticide pollution.


C. Dozen - POPs will be phased out

Ten ministries of China, including the Ministry of Environmental Protection, jointly issued an announcement on April 16th, 2009 that from May 17th, 2009 the production, trading, application, import and export of DDT, chlordan, mirex and hexachlorobenzene shall be banned within China. In emergency situations, the production and application of DDT preventive treatment of disease vectors shall be settled through discussion among related governmental departments.
   DDT, chlordane, mirex and hexachlorobenzene are the persistent organic pollutants (POPs) stipulated to be eliminated within a limited period of time in "Stockholm Convention on POPs." China was one of the first countries to sign this convention. At present, in China, DDT is used for preventive treatment of disease vectors in emergencies, for production of dicofol and antifouling paint, chlordane and mirex are used for termite control, hexachlorobenzene is used to produce sodium pentachlorophenate. China reiterated the purpose of its management of persistent organic pollutants is to effectively control, reduce and prevent the bad effects of persistent organic pollutants on human health and environment, in response to the Stockholm Convention. The first 12 kinds of POPs listed in the convention include aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, mirex, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene, toxaphene, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxin and furan. In May 2009, nine more were added: alpha-hexachlorocyclohexane, beta-hexachlorocyclohexane, hexabromodiphenyl ether, heptabromodiphenyl ether, tetrabromodiphenyl ether pentabromodiphenyl ether, chlordecone, hexabromobiphenyl, lindane, pentachlorobenzene, perfluorooctane sulfonate and its salts and perfluorooctanosulfonyl fluoride. At present it is a significant task for China and the world to reduce and eliminate the first 12 kinds of POPs.

D. Determining the adjustment direction for the pesticide industry  

The meeting for promoting structural adjustment of China petroleum and chemical industry on October 20th, 2009 formally issued the Guidance Suggestions for Adjustment of Industrial Structure in the Petroleum and Chemical Industry and Guidance Suggestions of Supporting Technologies for Stimulating the Petroleum and Chemical Industry for the development direction of future agrochemicals production.   
   The target of structural adjustment defined in the two "Guidance" documents for the pesticide industry is to

  * control the product capacity of traditional pesticide varieties
  * continue to adjust the proportion among insecticides, bactericides and herbicides
  * speed up the elimination of high-toxic and high-risk pesticides
  * speed up the innovation, research, development and promotion of pesticides with high efficiency, safety and environmentally friendliness
  * focus on the development of water-borne formulations and other new formulations as well as the supported new processing additives and non-aromatic solvents
  * popularize the upstream and downstream integration development mode
  * migrate plants into chemical industrial parks in order to realize the unified governance of wastes
  * encourage strong enterprises t