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Strong growth for French agrochemical market in 2007
Jul. 21, 2008
French agrochemical sales in 2007 touched €1,820 million ($2,857 million at current exchange rate), an increase of 5.8% over the previous year. In terms of volume, sales increased by 8%, reaching 77,300 tonnes.
The French agrochemical industry association, the UIPP, attributes the rise to increased disease infestations resulting from exceptional climatic conditions that saw long periods of rain and mild temperatures in the months of May to July. An increase in area under wheat and low stocks of products available with distributors at the beginning of the season were also cited as reasons for the jump.
Sales in the French agricultural year of 2006/07 amounted to €1,841 million ($2,890 million), up by 5.3% over the previous year. The first six months of the year were stable while the latter six months saw a leap in sales of 18%. Fungicide sales saw a spurt of 12.7%, herbicides increased by 1.3%, while insecticide sales went down by 6%.
An analysis of the industry’s price indices by the UIPP revealed an overall stabilisation in prices of all agrochemicals except fungicides, which went down by around 2%.
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French agrochemical sales by category (€ million)
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Product category
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2005/06 ($ million)
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% change
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2006/07 ($ million)
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Herbicides
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777 (1,220)
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+1.3
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787 (1,235)
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|
Fungicides
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612 (961)
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+12.7
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690 (1,083)
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Insecticides
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167 (262)
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-6.0
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157 (246)
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Others
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191 (300)
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+8.4
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207 (325)
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Total
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1,747 (2,742)
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+5.4
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1,841 (2,890)
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Source: UIPP.
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fungicide use explosion
Fungicide use witnessed 4.7% growth, which was mainly due to increased disease pressure on potatoes and grapevines. The UIPP says that it was a tough year for potato growers. Disease infestations started very early as climatic conditions of rain and mild temperatures were “extremely favourable” for disease development in May, June and July. Potato blight (Phytophthora infestans) infestation exploded, with disease incidence being much higher than the previous year. The severity of disease infestation led to a shortage of fungicides and the French Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries was forced to issue use extensions for 45 products for a period of 45 days in June 2007.
In grapevines, exceptional disease pressure in the form of mildews required the use of a variety of fungicides including copper products. The average number of anti-mildew applications jumped by 46% to 7.3 from the previous year’s average of five. There were stock shortages of some products during critical periods. The previous peak was of 8.4 applications in 1999-2000.
In cereals, several regions experienced severe attacks of Fusarium spp, Septoria spp and rust.
Herbicide use increased by 6.5%. The increase was mainly on maize and small-grain cereals. High humidity in May and June resulted in excessive weed infestation, which led to an increase in the number of herbicide applications.
Insecticide use, however, declined by 6.5%. Low insect pest pressure resulted in a decline in the number of treatments.
The UIPP says that France was the leading country in European agrochemical sales of €8,188 million ($12,853 million) in 2006. It was the fourth-largest market globally after the US, Brazil and Japan, respectively.
2008 expectations
The UIPP expects the demand for fungicides to increase this year because of increased sowing of cereals. It expects the area under cereals in France in 2008 to increase by 500,000 ha, with the area under wheat increasing by 5%. It attributes soaring prices and suspension of set-aside as factors for the expected increase. The European Parliament and EU Agriculture Ministers have given their formal support for European Commission plans to abolish the EU set-aside scheme.
The area under maize is expected to exceed 1.6 million ha, an increase of around 140,000 ha. Oilseed rape is expected to go down by 185,000 ha and the sugar beet area to go down by 12% compared with 2007. Ongoing EU policies to reduce subsidies are expected to lead to a decline of around 17% in the area under sugar beet in the EU.
Source: UIPP
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