Corporate information up date
These eleven companies account for 81%
of global sales. Concentration in the market has become even greater since
this analysis, which covers the 1995 financial year, with the
consolidation of Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz (No. 11 in 1995) to form Novartis.
The eight Japanese companies in the top 25 together account for 13.6% of
sales.
The 1995 financial year was very profitable,
with sales increases in real terms of 4.3%, and total end-user sales of
nearly US$29,000 million (other industry analysts had put it slightly
higher). Herbicides account for 48% of sales, followed by insecticides
with 27% and fungicides 19%. Three companies dominate the world herbicide
market: Ciba Geigy; Monsanto, with glyphosate—the world’s biggest selling
pesticide—accounting for 65% of its total pesticide sales; and Zeneca,
with paraquat still a major money-spinner. Insecticides are dominated by
Bayer, with over 10% of the world market and fungicides again by Ciba with
over 15% of the market.
One surprise entry is the
New Zealand company Fernz, the generic pesticide producer trading as
Nufarm, which became the 24th largest company: but its share of less than
1% of global sales is no threat to the present pecking order. The other
non-European/US/Japanese company is the Israeli firm Makhteshim Agan,
which concentrates mainly on generics.
Biotechnology focus
Biotechnology is a key interest of all the major R&D-based
companies, most of which are involved in herbicide-tolerant research. The
aim of the companies is to cement profits from the expanding herbicide
market and continue to influence a high-input, industrial agriculture
strategy.
With the world’s top-selling pesticide,
Monsanto is also a leading company introducing transgenic crops, for
obvious reasons focusing on glyphosate-tolerant crops, including soybeans,
canola, oilseed rape, cotton, sugar beet and maize. The glyphosate market
is already estimated at over US$1,800 million, or 6% of all agrochemical
sales. In the next five years—and encouraged by glyphosate-tolerant
crops—farmers could be applying 40,000 tonnes of this active ingredient to
their crops. Monsanto is also investigating plants expressing traits of
the bio-insecticide Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). Monsanto is
determined to prevent farmers from saving seeds and replanting by ensuring
all its transgenic crops are hybrid varieties which will not breed true.
Zeneca is on target to be the major seed
producer by the end of the century. It has merged its seed business with a
Dutch company to form Zeneca VanderHave, and became one of the top five
seeds companies with annual sales of around US$460 million. The company is
looking for proteins with fungicidal activities in seeds. An interesting
development in Zeneca is research into transgenic trees with Nippon Paper
Industries and Shell, to produce certain trees for paper production with
lower energy and bleach input.
Zeneca has developed
maize and oilseed rape tolerant of AgrEvo’s herbicide, glufosinate. AgrEvo
is also focusing on glufosinate-tolerant crops, such as ‘Liberty Link'
oilseed rape, resistant to up to 6-8 times the normal dose of glufosinate.
It is also developing maize—and soybean-tolerant glufosinate as well as
plants resistant to fungal and viral attack.
DowElanco is consolidating its seeds and biotech interests, and in a deal
with Mycogen (US), exchanged its seed business for a 46% stake in Mycogen.
Biotechnology in DowElanco focuses on major crops, especially
maize.
BASF is using biotech fermentation methods to
produce active isomers of mecoprop and dichlorprop herbicides, and has
agreements to introduce maize tolerance to its sethoxydim based
herbicides: it predicts planting may increase 15-20 times to 3-4 million
acres in the next two years.
Ciba Geigy is focusing
on transgenic crops that express improved or enhanced natural resistance,
but has earned criticism from environmental groups for its maize which
expresses Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) offering resistance to corn
borer attack. Ciba Geigy is supplying the International Rice Research
Institute, IRRI, with its proprietary Bt endotoxin gene to enable it to
produce a transgenic rice. Cyanamid is experimenting with genetically
engineered baculovirus, Autographa californica multiple nuclear
polyhedrosis virus (AcMNPV), against Lepidopterous pests in cotton,
tobacco and leafy vegetables, containing an insect specific neurotoxin
from a scorpion, which is also a focus of Du Pont’s biotech research.
Rhône Poulenc has interests in biotechnology
including tolerance to its own herbicide, bromoxynil. It has released
bromoxynil-tolerant tobacco and cotton and is investigating transferring
the gene into potatoes and oilseed rape. Bayer is concentrating on
improving crop resistance to pests and diseases, biological crop
protection and herbicide-tolerant crops. Cyanamid is focusing on
imidazolinone-tolerant soybeans and leguminous crops (IMI-crops) and is
developing a new herbicide for use in IMI-crop varieties.
Japan
Nearly
all companies are seeking to gain access to the huge Japanese rice market,
and the growing distribution networks of Japanese companies. AgrEvo has
signed an agreement with ISK to sell glufosinate in Japan, hoping it will
extend later to other products. Ciba Geigy is targeting Japanese rice
sales and has entered a joint venture with Japanese Mitsui Toatsu and
increased its stake in Tomono Agrica (Japan) from 20% to 50%. DowElanco
also has a joint venture in Japan.
Eastern Europe and China
In
Eastern Europe, Rhône Poulenc is leading a joint venture in Kazakhstan
with the Kyrgyz Agribusiness Co, aiming to make the country
self-sufficient in cereals by an agrochemical-based strategy to doubling
yields from the current 2.5 tonnes per ha. AgrEvo has just joined this
venture. BASF has expectations that the Eastern European market will
recover, and is building a presence in each of the Eastern European
countries, though the markets are still poor. It has one of the largest
agrochemical marketing structures in place in the Russian Republic. Du
Pont has important sales in Poland and Hungary.
Zeneca, once geared up to invest in Eastern Europe, has been marking time,
and has focused on China. China also interests AgrEvo, which has a joint
venture with two Chinese companies, aiming to sell anilofos and endosulfan
and Du Pont , which invested US$25 million in a Shanghai plant to produce
bensulfuron-methyl, 80% owned by Du Pont.
Copping, LG, AGROW’s Top Twenty Five 1996, PJB Publications, 18-20 Hill Rise, Richmond, TW10 6UA, UK, 1996, 265pp.
Trends in pesticide
application
Too little attention focuses on
pesticide application, where sound technology can minimise waste, spray
drift, efficacy and save farmers’ money. This new Agrow report provides a
good overview of what is currently available in all areas of pest control,
agriculture, horticulture, amenity use and public health. Nevertheless, it
notes that application techniques have changed little over the last 100
years, although there have been improvements in the
technology.
This is a fairly uncritical survey of
existing technology. For example, in looking at aerial spraying, it
assumes that guidelines for farmers have eliminated many of the problems
of overspraying, water-source contamination and spray drift associated
with this application method. Nor does it acknowledge that problems with
pesticide application may be addressed by non-chemical means. Dr Copping
does, however, discuss frankly areas of conflict between farmers’ need to
minimise pest damage, for example by spraying when spray drift is a
problem, and health and safety regulations.
This
report is a useful overview of the existing state of
application.
Copping, LG, Trends in Application
Techniques, Agrow, PJB Publications, 18-20 Hill Rise, Richmond, TW10 6UA,
UK, 1996, 121pp.
Marketing transgenic
plants
This important selection of
papers—results from a workshop hosted by the Panamerican College of
Agriculture Zamorano in May 1996—springs from a concern with the growth
and availability in central America of crop plants which express pesticide
characteristics. At present the most important transgenes are derived from
soil bacterium and the bio-insecticide Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt).
There is a real fear that the expansion of plants bred to contain the Bt
gene will speed up insect resistance to this important pest control
product. A possible ecological hazard lies in the potential for transgenic
crops to create new weeds, and to erode genetic diversity by genetic
exchanges with wild native plants. A recent study has shown that genes
from a crop can move rapidly into wild, weedy relatives and create new
weed species. Yet Latin America is not prepared for the entry of these new
crops. With the exceptions of Mexico and Costa Rica, government officials,
researchers, extension agencies, foreign donors, farmers and consumers are
uninformed of the risks and benefits. Nor has the technology been analysed
in the regional context to develop recommendations, policies, laws or
regulations about its use. These papers are an important attempt to fill
this void.
Hruska, Allan J and Milton Lara Pavón, Transgenic Plants in Mesoamerican Agriculture, Zamorano Academic Press, Librería Zamorano, Box 93, Tegucigalpa, MDC, Honduras, CA, 1997, 127pp.
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Order direct from Amazon.co.uk |
Global
trends
The World Watch Institute has
produced its annual Vital Signs 1996 which reports on a wide range
of long-term global trends. It contains one report on the pesticides
trade—'Efforts to Control the Global Pesticides Expand' by Toni
Nelson and another— 'Organic Farming Up Sharply' by Gary
Gardner.
Nelson predicts that sales are likely to
increase and focuses on the negative costs of pesticides such as acute and
chronic health effects. She reports on the efforts to control the use and
trade of pesticides through the Prior Informed Control (PIC) procedure.
She criticises PIC because it only contains 12 pesticides (now out of date
see page 9), although some 127 chemicals are possible candidates for
future inclusion.
Gary Gardner says that output from
organic farming is up sharply during the 1990s. Although global data are
not available, several national and regional indicators reveal clear
trends: organically cultivated area in the European Union expanded
fourfold between 1987 and 1993. In the US, sales of organic farm products
more than doubled between 1990 and 1994. The report focuses mostly on the
US and Europe where most organic production occurs. One reference to Latin
America does show that organic produce is increasingly seen as a lucrative
niche market. Mexico, for example, is now the world's largest producer of
organic coffee.
Brown, L, Flavin, C and Kane, H., Vital Signs 1996, World Watch Institute, 1776 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington DC, 20036, US, 169pp. Order direct from Amazon.co.uk.
Best control—wrong
format?
The Best Control published
on CD ROM is an electronic reference book on the best methods for
controlling home and garden pests using integrated pest management (IPM)
techniques. The premise of the book is that synthetic chemical pesticides
are toxic and hazardous and there is generally no need to use them for the
control of pests.
This is a worthy and
well argued stance, and The Best Control supports it by providing
detailed instructions on the control of home and garden pests from ants to
yellowjackets (wasps) and algae to weeds. Information about pests includes
detailed physiological and ecological characteristics which are essential
for effective IPM, and then practical prevention and control techniques
are listed. The author is also an experienced pest controller and is
therefore not just spouting ideological theory.
This publication is not particularly easy to
use despite its hi-tech format. First a relatively high degree of computer
literacy is needed to load and run the necessary software. Secondly good
quality hardware is needed in order to view the text and illustrations.
Reading large amounts of text on a computer screen is not easy, and many
of the illustrations are not clear.
The
electronic format needs refinement to be really useful. It would be best
to wait for the book.
The Best Control, Stephen Tvedten, Get Set Inc., 2530 Hayes St., Marne, MI 49435-9751, US. Usable on PC, Mac and UNIX computers.(also available in ring bound hard copy format).
Pesticide evaluations
Experts from the World Health Organisation and the Food and
Agriculture Organisation have assessed a number of pesticides in
their series of toxicological and environmental monographs. The current
volume examines benomyl, captan, carbendazim, fenarimol, fenpyroximate,
fenthion, flusilazole, folpet, haloxyfop, iprodione, monocrotophos,
parathion, parathion-methyl, piperonyl butoxide, quintozene,
thiophanate-methyl, vinclozolin. It is a useful document containing much
detailed information.
Pesticide residues in food—1995, Part II-toxicological and environmental, Joint FAO/WHO meeting on pesticide residues, International Programme on Chemical Safety, 1211 Geneva 27 Switzerland, WHO/PCS/96.48, 1996, 498pp.
Veterinary products
data
The 1997-98 edition of the National
Office of Animal Health (NOAH) Compendium of Data Sheets for Veterinary
Products is now available. It gives data sheets on safety
instructions, dosage rates. It contains details of pesticide products,
such as organophosphates and synthetic pyrethroids, available for
treatment against ectoparasites on domestic animals. A free copy is being
sent to every UK veterinary surgeon.
Compendium of Data Sheets for Veterinary Products 1997-1998, NOAH, 3 Crossfield Chambers, Gladbeck Way, Enfield, EN2 7HF, UK, 1997.
The UK Code of Practice for the Safe Use
of Pesticides on Farms and Holdings was first issued in 1990 and is now
being revised. The consultation period lasts until 24 March. The Code is
one of the essential documents on agricultural pesticide
practice.
The revised document briefly mentions ‘the
principles of integrated control’ and the need to minimise pesticide use.
It provides revised advice on how to conduct a risk
assessment.
Under information for the protection of
the public, it reminds farmers of their responsibilities for ensuring
proper warnings are given prior to pesticide application—these include
notifying adjoining landowners, public rights of way, or vulnerable groups
of people who may be exposed—e.g. spray which may affect hospitals,
schools and old people’s homes.
One of the best
improvements is the proposal to make the revised Code available
free.
Pesticides Safety Directorate, Room 317, Mallard House, Kings Pool, 3 Peasholme Green, York, YO1 2PX, UK.
US
pesticide report
The US Office of Pesticide
Programs (OPP) has produced its annual report for 1996. As part of
the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), OPP's mission is to protect
human health and the environment from the risks posed by pesticides and to
promote safer means of pest control.
The report says
in the US there are 620 active ingredients which make up 20,000 registered
products. Pesticides sales are now $9 billion.
During the year OPP established a permanent Biopesticides and Pollution
Prevention Division. As a result, ten new biopesticides and associated
products were registered (out of a total of 24 pesticides). One such
example includes a nematode than can replace some uses of methyl bromide,
an ozone delpleting conventional pesticide.
OPP Annual Report for 1996, US EPA, Washington DC, US, 45pp.
1,2-dibromoethane
report
This report evaluates the risks to
humans and the environment posed by 1,2-dibromo-ethane. It is used as a
fumigant for soil, grains and fruits. Demand has been reduced
substantially following bans on its use.
In humans,
1,2-dibromoethane is strongly irritant to the eyes, skin and respiratory
tract. Symptoms of poisoning are identified as headaches, severe vomiting,
diarrhoea, respiratory tract irritation, and death is usually caused by
pneumonia following damage to the lungs. Adverse effects on reproductive
function have been observed in laboratory experiments. Strong evidence
from animal studies also supports the conclusion that 1,2-dibromoethane is
a potential human carcinogen.
1,2-dibromoethane, Environmental Health
Criteria, No. 177, World Health Organisation, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland,
1996, 148pp.
[This
article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 35,
March 1997, pages 22-23]