Bio-Pesticide to Break Bottleneck in Development in China, CCM Research Indicates

Guangzhou, China, May 10, 2016 (Newswire.com) - ​Bio-pesticide, as an industry which should enjoy a bright future, encounters quite a lot of difficulties in China during its development. However, a great deal of beneficial policies from the Chinese government would better help bio-pesticide overcome different tasks, CCM research indicates.

Currently, there are over 40 R&D institutes of bio-pesticide in China, which keeps up with the world in the abilities in research and development. Moreover, there are over 80 registrations of bio-pesticides in China with over 2,500 products in the market, according to CCM’s external expert, Wang Jianwo, secretary general of Hunan Pesticide Industry Association.

However, the bio-pesticide industry develops quite slowly in China. The total revenue of 843 pesticide enterprises with considerable scales in China reached USD48.3 billion in 2014, up 7.5% YoY. Among the 843 enterprises, the total revenues of 130 bio-pesticide enterprises and microbial pesticides were only USD4.403 billion in 2014, accounting for less than 10% of the total revenues of 843 pesticides enterprises, according to CCM’s new report of Development of Bio-pesticide Industry in China.

Problems existing in bio-pesticides industry

In fact, several barriers are hindering the development of bio-pesticides: the holding back from the pesticides manufacturers, the sluggish development on R&D of bio-pesticide, and farmers’ reluctant use of bio-pesticides, analyzed in Development of Bio-pesticide Industry in China, CCM’s report.

Most bio-pesticide manufacturers are small-scale in China. With large investment but long and slow returns, the manufacturers are holding back in investing in bio-pesticide.       

At present, there are more than 240 bio-pesticides enterprises in China. Among them, there are only a few enterprises like Hebei Veyong Bio-Chemical Co., Ltd., Wuhan Kernel Bio-te.00ch Co., Ltd., etc. have a certain size, but the vast majority is small enterprises. These enterprises lack technical staff and financial resources, and they have small-scale production, single species and vulnerability to market shock. 

“The product of beauveria bassiana has been studied for more than 20 years while still has not yet been commercialized”, stated Hu Qiuyi, general manager of Shanxi Kegu Bio-pesticide Co., Ltd. “It has affected the company’s follow-up investment in R&D.”

When it comes to the R&D in bio-pesticide industry, bio-pesticides study is mainly conducted by research institutes. The vast majority of China's bio-pesticide enterprises own no research and development institutions for new products, while they focus on the production of formulation.

Research and production are carried out by different departments whose interests are not related, thus the research and technology achievements cannot be transferred into production. What's worse, there are few studies about the intermediate of the industrial fermentation process, the product toxicity and the environmental behavior, CCM’s report of Development of Bio-pesticide Industry in China indicates. 

Most of the farmers prefer chemical pesticides rather than the bio-pesticides, because bio-pesticides are of slow effect and higher price than chemical pesticides. 

It usually takes one or two days for the bio-pesticides to take effect. Along with the relatively higher price of bio-pesticide, it's hard for farmers to use them widely. What's worse, due to these objective reasons, the companies are reluctant to maintain production and promotion.
 

Beneficial policies to encourage bio-pesticide development

With the support of the policies from the Chinese government, the bottleneck in the bio-pesticide development could be broken.

In recent years, the Chinese government has continuously released a series of policies to hinder the development of chemicals fertilizers. That’s to say, the development of bio-pesticides is being greatly supported, indicated by Development of Bio-pesticide Industry in China.

 
Keys on Planting Industry 2015 released by China’s Ministry of Agriculture in Jan. 2015 pointed out that China should promote the pesticides with high-effect, low-toxicity and low-residue to meet with the goals of Zero Increase in the use of fertilizer pesticides.

Bio-pesticide, safer and more environmental friendly in application, would be highly promoted by the government.

In fact, during the past few years, some products of bio-pesticide have been successfully promoted. For example, the new type of anthraquinone compounds, a natural agricultural fungicide, is listed in the promotion products of China Spark Program, a program to develop rural economy in China. It was also certificated for organic and natural cosmetics by ECOCERT in European Union.

This kind of fungicides succeeds 90% in preventing diseases. The vegetables and fruits can be eaten the next day after the fungicide is applied. Since 2008, anthraquinone has been applied in over 1.33 million ha.

Some related policies on bio-pesticide or pesticide industry in China, as of 2016

2016: The Ministry of Agriculture released the document to increase the pesticide waste disposal rate from 20% in the 12th Five-year Plan to 30%, and the rate of by-product utilization to 30% in 2016 in the 13th Five-Year Plan.

2015: The State Council published Several Opinions on Implementation of New Concept of Development, Speeding up Modernization of Agriculture and Realizing a Well-off Society, to start-up the action of Zero Increase in the use of fertilizer pesticides and the pesticide utilization rate of both the fertilizer and main crops will exceed 40% till 2020, and to promote the fixed-point operation of high toxicity pesticides and demonstration subsidies of low toxicity and low residue pesticides.

2011: The State Development and Reform Commission published The Guidance Catalogue for the Industrial Structure Adjustment. The guidance pointed out that it will limit the production of pesticide technical with high toxicity, high residue and great influence on the environment

2010: China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released Plan of Relocation of Pesticide Manufactures. The production of pesticides in China will be more centralized. Till 2015, over 50% of total pesticide manufacturers in China would be relocated into chemical parks, and the number of relocated manufacturers will exceed 80% by 2020.

Source: Excerpted from Development of Bio-pesticide Industry in China

Note: It is not the same chart as it is in the report. Some information has been deleted in the chart above.

Moreover, according to the Chairman of the Institute for the Control of Agrochemicals, Ministry of Agriculture (ICAMA)'s Biological Test Chamber, the new registration policies will give more support to bio-pesticides registration, such as cutting down the efficacy test time of bio-pesticides from two years to one year, etc. This will help the bio-pesticide manufacturers reduce the registration time and seize the market opportunities.

With all the policies mentioned above, CCM’s report of Development of Bio-pesticide Industry in China forecasts that the domestic supply and demand for bio-pesticides will show a slight increase in the next five years (2016-2020).

In 2015, the bio-pesticides accounted for about 10% of the total pesticide market in China. In the next five years or more, it is expected that the bio-pesticides will not replace the chemical pesticide completely, but they will gradually substitute some chemical pesticides, and coexist with those high-effective and low-toxic ones in the future, forecasted in Development of Bio-pesticide Industry in China.

In CCM’s new edition of Development of Bio-pesticide Industry in China, you could find out the latest information of the major bio-pesticides about history, registrations, technology, raw material, production, export and import, consumption and forecast. Information about 8 kinds of major bio-pesticides is included in the report – bacillus thuringiensis, abamectin, jingangmycin, bacillus subtilis, bacillus cereus, matrine, oligosaccharins, and brassinolide.

If you would like to learn more the bio-pesticide industry in China, you could visit Development of Bio-pesticide Industry in China or contact us by emailing econtact@cnchemicals.com or calling +86-20-37616606.

About CCM:

CCM is the leading market intelligence provider for China’s agriculture, chemicals, food & ingredients and life science markets. Founded in 2001, CCM offers a range of data and content solutions, from price and trade data to industry newsletters and customized market research reports. Our clients include Monsanto, DuPont, Shell, Bayer, and Syngenta.

Source: CCM, China's Ministry of Agriculture