Though bromomethane used to be one of the most widely used fumigant around the world, it is destined to be eliminated due to its ozone-depleting properties. China has promised to ban its use inagricultural, tobacco production and grains by Jan 1, 2015, which will be almost ten years after many other developed countries. It is still unclear which fumigant will fill China's market gap after the removal of bromomethane, which once accounted for a quarter of global sales.

As happened in other countries, China has already invested in R&D on an environmentally feasible alternative to  bromomethane. A number of candidates have come to the forefront and are mainly produced by overseas enterprises. World fumigant demand maintained a steady growth over the past decade and reached a climax of 600 million USD in 2008. In 2010, sales proportion of 1,3-dichloropropene and chloropicrin (nitrotrichloromethane) have reached 33% and 28% respectively, followed by bromomethane(12%), metham-sodium(11%), dazomet(9%) and sulfuric oxyfluoride(7%).

1,3-dichloropropene is widely used in the US, Japan, Holland, Italy and other countries for greenhouse and Open-field vegetables. With robust sales in the market, it has occupied almost one third of the global fumigant market. However, this active ingredient has not yet gain ICAMA registration in China.

Although chloropicrin is the 2^nd most popular fumigant due to its effectiveness in management of various kinds of pests, it is also subject to extremely stringent control by the UN as it can also be used in the production of chemical weapons. There are only four authorized manufacturers in the world, located in Japan, China, Russia and the US. However as the only supplier in China, Lvfeng Chemical has not exploited its monopoly very well, which was mainly due to its reconstruction of manufacturing facilities and risk mitigation measures imposed on the fumigant.

Arysta a manufacturer of iodomethane is hoping to see continued market demand. The current adoption area of iodomethane(MIDAS) has reached almost 1130 hectare in the United State and global sales have tripled from 2008 to 2010, after its registration in Japan, Turkey, New Zealand, Morocco and Mexico in recent years. However this promising fumigant has yet to gain approval in China.

Metham-sodium, which was registered in nearly 20 countries in the world, has numbers amongst the top 10 most demanded pesticide in the United State with an annual consumption of 13,000 tons. Currently, there are four ICAMA registration approved in China, mainly targeted for nematodes, weeds and other soil vector diseases.

Dazomet was transferred from BASF and finally to Nantong Shizhuang. The registration status of the fumigant confers a market monopoly to the company as Nantong Shizhuang is the only ICAMA registrant for the accompanying technical material.

Label expansion of Dow’s sulfuric oxyfluoride has increasingly happened in many developed countries such as Japan, UK, Sweden and Germany, etc. As in China, the fumigant is also widely used in crop, timber, traditional Chinese herbal medicine, furniture, clothing, and archive-preservation. The market preference has seen this fumigant enjoy the most ICAMA registrations than any other fumigant ingredient listed above.

Even though the registered fumigants listed above are the most demanded in China, the market is often challenged by other non-mainstream products. In comparison to dazomet, using Calcium cyanamide can cut the operational costs relating to fumigant use by more than a half. So while we wait for a worthy candidate to fill the void left by bromoethane, the fumigants listed above will battle for market dominance.  

 Details of the article have been published in a Chinese monthly journal, Pesticides Science and Administration.