On the 14th of April 2015, China MEP released a draft of “ Interim Measures for the Package Waste Recycling and Disposal of Pesticide” and is currently soliciting opinions from other ministerial authorities. Under the new regulation both pesticide importers and producers will be required to collect and dispose of waste pesticide packaging and other packaging waste.

On 20 Mar 2015, the International Agency of Research on Cancer (IARC) announced the carcinogenicity classification of five pesticides. The Brazilian National Agency of Sanitary Surveillance (ANVISA) consequently clarified the regulatory status of each of the 5 active ingredients in Brazil with a particular focus on current and future regulation of glyphosate.

The Philippine Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority (FPA) passed a resolution in late January, banning Endosulfan technical and its alpha and beta isomers and other formulations.

On the 25th of Feb 2015, Taiwan BAPHIQ (Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine, Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan) invited public consultation on the exemption of 6 pesticides from registration requirements.

Thailand agricultural pesticide imports soared over 70% to 22.813 billion Baht (702 million USD at the current rate) by the end of 2014. Compared with the previous year, the number of the imported pesticide active ingredients/combinations increased from 210 to 253. Herbicide was by far the most imported pesticide category, which accounted for 80% of the total volume, followed by Insecticide (9%) and fungicide (8%).

During the first three quarters of 2014,the total value of Thailand’s agricultural pesticide imports reached 581.9 million USD amounting to some 123,096 tons. In total 238 individual pesticide products were imported into Thailand. Almost 62% of all imports were herbicides, followed by fungicides at 18% and insecticides at 17%.

Although Indonesia is one of the world’s major agricultural countries, in terms of its domestic capacities it lacks many of the basic agricultural inputs particularly in its indigenous pesticide industry. Indonesia’s pesticide industry is highly dependent on importation. In 2012 Indonesia’s pesticide market was valued at approximately 400 million USD. About 64% of Indonesia’s market was controlled by MNCs and the largest pesticide consumers by sector were rice cultivation (41%) and palm plantation crops (27%).  

The amide, sulfonylurea, triketone and tirqazine herbicides have been widely utilized in China for many years. Over reliance on these substances has however caused widespread weed resistance and other pesticide residue issues. In addition, China’s vast land mass has a diverse range of tillage methods and weather conditions. As such these widely used herbicides are no longer fit for purpose in a large number of maize plantations. With new formulations and new combination of active ingredients emerging in the market, the number of applications for field trail continues to increase. This article summarizes the maize herbicide field trial applicants, active ingredient, and field trail targets over the course of the last three years.

China National Agricultural Technology Extension and Service Center (NATESC) recently analyzed the crop protection market performance in 2014 and also made projections for the crop protection market in 2015. The total demand for pesticides in 2015 expected to be 1.009 million tons (325,800 tons on active ingredient basis) almost the same as that seen in 2014.