Herbicides world market

Wc cannot maintain our present high density of population in the developed world, nor deal with malnutrition in the developing world unless we preserve our food supply from attacks by insects and fungi and from competition by weeds. The world market for agrochemicals is over 10 000 000 000 per annum divided roughly equally between herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides,... 

The world market for crop protection chemicals is large, with sales worth 33.4 billion in 2007. Herbicides are the most valuable sector, worth 48.3% of the market in 2007, followed by fungicides and insecticides, valued at 24.3% and 24.0%, respectively. The remaining 3.4% of the market comprises products such as plant growth regulators. The market is mostly in Europe, North America, Asia and, increasin y, in Latin America, while the market in Africa is still relatively small. ... 

In 1995 over 1.7 billion worth of glyphosate was sold. (The total world market for herbicides is estimated to be 14 billion.) This herbicide thus makes up more than 12% of the herbicide market. It has been more than 30 years since the phytotoxic properties of glyphosate were first described, and it is still an herbicide with great unexploited potential through the use of genetically engineered crop plants resistant to it. Whether such techniques are ethically acceptable and favorable for the chemical environment and biodiversity is another question. The debate about this will probably continue for another decade or so. 

The EU currendy declares approximately 320.000 tons of active substances sold per year. This amount represents 25% of the total world market of PPPs. The most sold products are fungicides (43%), followed by herbicides (36%), insecticides (12%) and other pesticides (9%). 

In 2001, the world market for agricultural chemicals exceeded US 28 billion, with NAFTA (US, Canada, Mexico) and Europe accounting for over 50% of this total (Fig. I). Herbicides accounted for almost half of all sales, followed by insecticides (26%) and ftmgicides (21%). 

The value of all herbicides for crops marketed worldwide in 1980 was estimated at about 4.9 billion (17). The sale of herbicides for weed control in corn in the United States represented 70 and 49% of the world herbicide and pesticide purchases in corn, respectively. The sale of herbicides in soybeans represents 82 and 69% of the world herbicide and pesticide purchases in soybeans, respectively. The sale of herbicides for weed control in row crops in the United States represents 62 and 36% of the world herbicide and pesticide purchases for row crops, respectively. 

In the developed world in markets such as small grain cereals, soybean, maize and rice, the value of the herbicide market is much larger than either insecticides or fungicides (Figure 1.1). This is because the econo-... 

Table 1.2 Estimated share of world herbicide market...

Groundwater. Atrazine dominated the world herbicide market in the 1980s, and contamination of groundwater has been reported in several locations in the U.S., Europe, and South Africa. Successful biodegradation has been achieved with indigenous organisms in laboratory mesocosms after a lag phase, and once activity was found, it remained, It is clear that intrinsic remediation is likely to lead to the disappearance of atrazine from groundwaters. 

Although simazine was the first triazine to be developed and marketed in corn as well as other crops, the more versatile atrazine quickly became the standard herbicide in corn. Simazine, however, has remained very valuable and is important on forage crops, ornamentals, turf, and several other vegetable, fruit and nut crops, including almond, apple, artichoke, avocado, berries, cherry, citrus, grape, hazelnut, peach, and walnut. There also remains a strong demand for simazine use in corn in some areas based on specific weed pressure. Simazine is manufactured and sold by several companies today in more than 25 countries around the world, with Brazil, the United States, Australia, and Japan ranked as the top four. 

Acetolactate synthase (ALS, EC 4.1.3.18) is the first common enzyme in the biosynthetic route to the branched chain amino acids, valine, leucine and isoleucine. It is the primary target site of action for at least three structurally distinct classes of herbicides, the imidazolinones (IM), sulfonylureas (SU), and triazolopyrimidines (TP) (Figure 1). SU and IM were discovered in greenhouse screening programs whereas TP was subsequently targeted as a herbicide. Numerous substitution patterns can be incorporated into the basic structure of all three classes of herbicides to provide crop selectivity as well as broad spectrum weed control. This is amply demonstrated in the seven products based on SU and four based on IM already in the market. A number of others are in various stages of development. The rapid success of ALS inhibitors as herbicidal products has attracted a world-wide research commitment. Not since the photosystem II... 

Fungicide research receives less attention by synthesis chemists in the United States than do the herbicide and insecticide disciplines. Overseas chemists find a much greater market for fungicides than do their American counterparts. One of the chapters indicates the interest of the Japanese in fungicides. Two chapters attest to England s contributions to fungicide chemistry. These ergosterol biosynthesis inhibitors continue to attract effort from around the world as evidenced by these workers and the reports from American authors. 

In addition to exploiting the potential of polymer chemistry, Du Pont continued to commercialize new products in the divisions that had created their integrated learning bases before World War II. It did so in chemicals, including ammonia and methyl, and also in paints, finishes, and nonporous fabrics. After World War II, Du Pont began to build on its earlier potential in the production of insecticides and other agricultural chemicals (SIC 2879). Its innovative selective-weed-control products enabled it to capture 20 percent of the U.S. herbicide market by 1960. ... 

Ibid., for agricultural chemicals, pp. 446 47, 451 64 for percentage of herbicide market, see p. 458. By the early 1990s Du Pont was the second-largest and most profitable producer of herbicides in the world (Chemical Week, Sept. 8, 1993). 

---