Herbicide Market:
Weed through the Old to Bring forth the New

By Zhang Weinong

Herbicide sales in China have been quite sound in recent years. Many new products with market advantages enjoy expanding market shares, and some of these “rising stars” are leading the herbicide market.

Rising stars in the herbicide market

Sulfonylurea herbicides: Such herbicides had quite good sales in 2013 and the first half of 2014. They are the most popular herbicides in China. Prominent varieties include tribenuron-methyl, nicosulfuron, rimsulfuron, bensulfuron-methyl and metsulfuron-methyl. Tribenuron-methyl is a new wheat-field herbicide with high efficiency, low toxicity and great safety. It is one of the most advanced wheat-field herbicides, both at home and abroad, to deal with stubborn broad-leaf weeds. China plants more than 25.3 million hectares of winter wheat. Great quantities of dryland herbicides need to be imported each year. Tribenuron-methyl has bright market prospects in China. Nicosulfuron took the lead in corn post-emergence herbicides in the first half of 2014. Its output and price have both increased, and sales are very brisk.
Amide herbicides: Such herbicides hold very big shares in the market, with sales volume second only to amino acid herbicides (glyphosate and glufosinate-ammonium) and sulfonylurea herbicides. Varieties with the biggest sales volumes include acetochlor, metolachlor, alachlor and butachlor. Acetochlor is the major herbicide used by farmers in China for dryland weeding, and demand for it is increasing rapidly. Metolachor and alachlor are soybean herbicides. They also sell well each year.
Dinitroaniline herbicides: Typical varieties of such herbicides include pendimethalin, trifluralin and oryzalin. These traditional varieties are still competitive in the market. Trifluralin is a variety for dryland crops such as cotton. As the price of cotton has increased in recent years, the amount of trifluralin used by farmers keeps going up. Trifluralin has been exported in considerable volumes in recent years.
Aryloxyphenoxypropionate herbicides: Typical varieties of such herbicides include fenoxaprop-P-ethyl, clodinafop-propargyl, fluazifop-P-butyl and haloxyfop-P. These varieties hold stable shares in the market for post-emergence herbicides for soybeans, cotton, peanuts, sugar beets, potatoes, oats and vegetables.

Herbicide market in transition

According to statistics, the incidence area of weeds in China has reached 86.7 million hectare-times a year. Various vicious weeds, echinochloa crusgalli, semen euphorbiae lathyridis, weedy rice and eleucine indica in rice fields in particular, are enormous hazards to agricultural production. Herbicides used to protect rice, soybeans and corn account for nearly 70% of the herbicides registered in China for major farm crops.
Traditional herbicides used to prevent and control echinochloa crusgalli and cyperaceae cyperus, such as quinclorac and chipton, have been used in rice fields in South China for many years. Due to the long-time use of only one variety, weeds such as echinochloa crusgalli and semen euphorbiae lathyridis have developed higher resistance to it. For example, the registered application amount of 50% quinclorac is 450-600 g per hectare, but sometimes the effect is still not satisfactory when the application amount is tripled in rice fields for direct seeding cultivation. The registered application amount of 10% cyhalofop-butyl is 600-900 mL per hectare, but in some places the effect is still not satisfactory when the application amount exceeds 1500 mL per hectare. Hazards caused by vicious weeds in farmlands are getting more serious, and difficulties in prevention and control have become greater in recent years. The advanced experience and high-effect products of multinational companies are increasingly accepted by plant protection workers and farmers in China for alleviating these problems. ClincherTM (cyhalofop-butyl), FencerTM (penoxsulam) and RicerTM (mixture of penoxsulam and cyhalofop-butyl), all recently developed by Dow AgroSciences, are broad-spectrum herbicides for stalk and leaf treatment. They have good effect for the control of vicious weeds such as echinochloa crusgalli. The sales value of these herbicides in the Chinese market has reached over RMB100 million a year since 2010. HanqiuhaoTM (metamifop), recently put onto the Chinese market by FMC of the United States, has excellent effect for the prevention and control of grass vicious weeds such as echinochloa crusgalli, semen euphorbiae lathyridis and crabgrass in rice fields of direct seeding cultivation. Its costs less than Dow’s RicerTM. FMC has become the only competitor of Dow AgroSciences. BilibinengTM is a special herbicide for the prevention and control of echinochloa crusgalli in rice fields, developed and produced by Kumiai Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. of Japan. The action of its effective ingredient, pyriminobac-methyl is unique. The effective duration is as long as 40-60 days. It is very safe to rice, succession crops, human bodies, livestock and the environment, and is therefore highly acclaimed in the market.
The incidence area of weeds (such as weedy rice, eleucine indica, crabgrass and echinochloa crusgalli) in rice fields of direct seeding cultivation in Jiangsu and Zhejiang is increasing rapidly. The application amount of recently disseminated herbicides such as cyhalofop-butyl, penoxsulam, metamifop and pinoxaden grew drastically in the first half of 2014, due to their effectiveness.
More than 26.0 million hectares of corn is planted in China. New herbicides with super high efficiency and low toxicity have become the development focus. Some corn-field herbicides with high application amount and high toxicity have been gradually phased out of market.
Over 10 varieties of corn-field herbicides are used in China, mainly including atrazine, acetochlor, nicosulfuron and 2,4-D. Atrazine, acetochlor and nicosulfuron, all with long residual action, have already damaged the environment due to excessive application. Varieties with short residual action and formulations for stalk and leaf treatment should be urgently developed, and application technologies should be improved. Herbicides with high effect and great safety are the orientation for future corn-field weeding.
Rimsulfuron is a new sulfonylurea herbicide with low toxicity and high efficiency developed by DuPont in the 1980s. It was registered in China as a post-emergence herbicide in 1997, and immediately went into use. It is an important herbicide for corn fields. Zhejiang University of Technology has modified and optimized the closed loop pyridine synthesis route of rimsulfuron. The total yield reaches 38.8% and the content is higher than 98.5%. Rimsulfuron is produced by only a few enterprises in China, so the market prospect is promising. Mesotrione is a triketone herbicide developed by Syngenta. It is a systemic and selective herbicide used in both before-germination and post-germination modes to prevent and control broad-leaf weeds and grass weeds in corn fields. It sells well in European and American markets. Its high efficiency, low toxicity and low application amount have won acclaim in the plant protection industry in China. It has become the development focus for Chinese enterprises since the expiry of the patent period in 2012. It has already become one of the major corn-field herbicides in China.
The regular planting area of soybeans in China is around 9.0 million hectares, exceeded only by rice, wheat and corn. To cope with the great complexity in the type, distribution and community structure of weeds in soybean fields, new changes have taken place in varieties of corn-field herbicides. Varieties that are no longer used include isoproturon, ethachlor and linuron. Traditional varieties that are still in use include alachlor, propisochlor, trifluralin and pendimethalin. Varieties with high efficiency and low toxicity recommended by plant protection authorities for before-germination use include metolachlor-P, metolachlor, clomazone, thifensufuron, propanamide, 90% acetochlor, flumioxazin, metribuzin and 2,4-D isooctyl ester. Varieties with high efficiency and low toxicity recommended for post-germination use include fluazifop-P-butyl, sethoxydim, quizalofop-P-ethyl, high-effect healxyfop-methyl, fenoxaprop-P-ethyl, quizalofop-P-tefuryl, clethodim, fomesafen, bentazon, lactofen, acifluorfen sodium and clomazone.

Herbicides with market prospects for GM crops

High activity, broad spectrum, multiple function and extensive application are important reasons for the market prominence won by 2,4-D. Since the discovery of 2,4-D in 1942, phenoxy herbicides already have a history of over 60 years and the sales value is still climbing. With the successful development and dissemination of GM crops by Dow Chemical, the demand for 2,4-D will likely increase. The capacity for making 2,4-D in China has already reached 33.5 kt/a and the capacity in foreign countries exceeds 30.0 kt/a. Total demand in China is around 8.0 kt and total demand in foreign countries is around 50.0 kt. There is already oversupply in market, but some enterprises are still attracted by the bright prospect of 1,4-D, so they launch new and expansion projects. For example, Shandong Weifang Runfeng Chemical Co., Ltd. and Jiangsu Changzhou Yongtaifeng Chemical Co., Ltd. plan to expand the 1,4-D capacity to 50-70 kt/a in the next two years and construct matched production lines of raw materials phenol and chloroacetic acid.
GM crops with resistance to 2,4-D have brought new opportunities to the development of 2,4-D.
With the successful development of GM crops with resistance to both glyphosate and dicamba by Monsanto, traditional herbicide variety dicamba has started to show a new market life. Due to the massive application of glyphosate, the problem of weeds that have developed resistance is becoming more and more severe. It was discovered in tests that the blend of glyphosate and dicamba has satisfactory effect for the prevention and control of weeds and can also retard the development of resistance in weeds. GM crops with resistance to both glyphosate and dicamba have therefore become a development focus in seed companies. There are only 3 approved dicamba-resistant GM crops in the world today. It can however be foreseen that the sustained development of new dicamba-resistant GM crops will become a trend, and their large-area dissemination and planting is probably not very far in the future.
According to experts, North America and South America started to approve and commercially plant dicamba-resistant crops in 2013 and 2014. The respective market penetrations of second-generation GM crops into these two markets will be 12% and 20% in the third year. Based on these data, the planting area of dicamba-resistant crops is estimated to be 16.5-27.8 million hectares in 2016. The leading dicamba producer in the world is BASF of Germany. The total capacity in the world is 12-13 kt/a and the capacity in China is around 4-5 kt/a. Eighteen technical dicamba varieties, 11 single-component formulations and 14 compound formulations have been registered in China. Nearly 10 enterprises in China produce technical dicamba. Enterprises with considerable scale include Zhejiang Shenghua Biok Biology Co., Ltd., Jiangsu Good Harvest Weien Agrochemical Co., Ltd., Shandong Weifang Runfeng Chemical Co., Ltd., Jiangsu Yangnong Chemical Group Co., Ltd., Syngenta and Jiangsu Changqing Agrochemical Co., Ltd. Products are mainly for export. These enterprises all intend to expand their capacities. Jiangsu Changqing Agrochemical Co., Ltd. has constructed a new 2.0 kt/a dicamba production line. Jiangsu Yangnong Chemical Group Co., Ltd. already operates dicamba capacity of 1.5kt/a and has constructed a new 5.0 kt/a unit. Dicamba production in China will likely see a new round of capacity surplus. The market prospect of dicamba is quite attractive, but future demand will be determined mainly by further development, registration, dissemination and planting of dicamba-resistant GM crops. Attention should also be paid to the research and development of new technologies for compounding dicamba with other herbicides. With the entry of new crops with resistance to herbicides into the market in next few years, the market scale of herbicides with low cost and broad spectrum such as 2,4-D and dicamba will inevitably expand and impact the glyphosate market.