German agrochemical market rose 9% in 2012

German agrochemicals sales at the wholesale level rose by 8.5% in 2012 in comparison to the previous year to €1.4 billion ($1.86 billion at the current rate), according to the German Agriculture Industry Association, the IVA.

The turnover of herbicides was increased by 13.5% to €655 million ($867 million). Sales of herbicides used on sugar beet were up by 20%. The market value of maize herbicides was increased by 5% and the planting area up by about 2%. The growth was driven by the opening of more biogas facilities and increasing additional cultivated areas. High oilseed rape planting area of about 100,000 ha significantly contributed to the higher market value of rape herbicides. The cereal herbicides market was stable.

Favorable weather conditions influenced obviously the sales of fungicides. Sales were increased by 4.2% to €518 million ($685 million). Disease pressure caused by unstable weather in cereals, particularly in the late development stages, increased the usage of fungicides. For oilseed rapes, the increased application areas in the autumn of 2012 didn’t affect the rape fungicides market of the whole year. The higher usage of high-value products in potatoes and sugar beets led to increases in value of fungicides.

Sales of insecticides grew by 9.2% to €155 million ($205 million) mainly due to the intensive treatment with oilseed rapes. The cereals insecticides market and other application areas were stable in value.

The global agrochemical market rose by 7.5% in 2012 to some $47.3 billion. In euro terms, this result is in an increase of 8.7% to €36.3 billion. Europe (EU 27) accounted for 26.5% of global market sales, and Asia 26%, Latin America 24.4%, the NAFTA (including USA, Canada and Mexico) 19.1%, and other regions 4%.