Biopesticide market is growing rapidly, and domestic and foreign enterprises are competing for layout

As an important part of the sustainable development of agriculture, the biopesticide industry has achieved rapid development worldwide in recent years. On March 24, under the guidance of the National Agricultural Technology Extension Service Center and hosted by the China Pesticide Development and Application Association, the 2024 Green prevention and control Innovation Technology Exchange meeting was held in Pujiang, Sichuan. The reporter was informed from the meeting that the global biopesticide market continues to expand, and the market size is expected to grow from $9.5 billion in 2022 to $16.75 billion in 2027. A compound annual growth rate of 12%.

From the perspective of enterprises, the world's leading pesticide companies represented by Kedihua, UPL, Syngenta, BASF, etc., are accelerating the layout of the biopesticide market by acquiring biotechnology companies or cooperating with them, and A-share companies such as Guoguang Shares and Qianjiang Biochemical and A number of innovative enterprises have also promoted the innovative research and development and business layout of biopesticides.

"China's biopesticide industry is entering a stage of rapid development, the industry has the foundation, the market has the prospect, the policy has the support, the above favorable factors will promote biopesticide enterprises to usher in good growth and improvement space." The 'spring' of the biopesticide industry is coming." China Pesticide Development and application Association president Zhou Puguo said.

The market size is growing rapidly

In recent years, China has vigorously promoted the green development of agriculture to speed up the transformation of agricultural modernization. As an important embodiment of the application of bio-high-tech in the agricultural field, bio-pesticides have become the highland of a new round of agricultural technology competition in China.

According to the "China biopesticide Industry Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") released by CIC on March 24, China's biopesticide market is showing a rapid growth trend. The market size in 2022 is 15.03 billion yuan and is expected to grow to 33.09 billion yuan by 2027, with a compound annual growth rate of 17.1%.

The report shows that at present, biopesticides (including agricultural antibiotics) account for more than 10% of the total domestic pesticide market, and in the future, with the continuous promotion and implementation of high-quality green development of agriculture, China's biopesticide market will usher in a broad space for development.

Biopesticides play a positive role in maintaining ecological balance and environment, helping to ensure food safety and quality, and promoting sustainable and low-carbon agricultural development. In Zhou Puguo's view, with the improvement of consumption level, people pay more attention to the "safety on the tip of the tongue", and the use of biopesticides is concerned; At the same time, China's agricultural production has gradually entered the branding stage, and relevant enterprises maintain a positive attitude towards the purchase of biopesticides, which has a significant boost to the development of the biopesticide market. In addition, the export of biopesticides shows a good trend, and the international market represented by the European Union has an increasing demand for biopesticides, which further drives the development of the industry.

Wang Chongli, product manager of biologics at Syngenta (China) Investment Co., LTD., said: "The development level of China's biopesticide industry is not much different from that of foreign countries, almost at the same starting line. In recent years, biopesticide has become one of the focus of the world's major pesticide giants, mainly through the merger and acquisition of start-up enterprises to complete the layout, the future, driven by consumer demand, biopesticide industry will receive more and more attention, it will and chemical pesticides together to promote agricultural development."

Zhao Xiaoma, partner of Burning Knowledge Consulting, also believes that the parallel development of biopesticides and chemical pesticides will be the general trend of the development of the pesticide industry in the future. "In recent years, the field of biopesticide investment and financing activities are relatively active, the next five years, biopesticide market is expected to maintain a double-digit annual growth rate, from the pesticide sector, biopesticide in the future to occupy about one-third to half of the market proportion will be an ideal state."

Enterprise innovation is concerned

At present, China's biopesticide industry is developing rapidly, the number of biopesticide product registration is increasing year by year, the products cover Insecticides, Fungicides and plant growth regulators and other categories, many industry companies have begun to layout biopesticide business.

Public information shows that as of the end of the first half of 2023, Guoguang Shares have a total of 297 pesticide product registration certificates, of which 50 are biological pesticide registration certificates. The company said that the market potential of environmentally friendly pesticide products is great, and biopesticides have become one of the priorities of research and investment in the pesticide industry.

Qianjiang Biochemical's biopesticide business covers the development, production and sales of plant growth regulators, insecticides, fungicides and other products. The company said that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs proposed to continue to promote the reduction of pesticide efficiency, advocate the reduction of resource-saving and environmentally friendly ecological civilization and green production, which provides a good opportunity and huge space for the development of biopesticides.

Chengdu New Chaoyang Crop Science Co., Ltd. is the first batch of specialized new "little giant" enterprises of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Ren Dan, deputy general manager of the company and president of the Institute of Biotechnology, said that the company's current research and development direction is mainly focused on soil remediation technology, biostimulants, natural product pesticides and other aspects. "Compared with chemical pesticides, the biopesticide industry is still a 'blue ocean market', and enterprises with resource advantages, innovation advantages and technical service advantages are expected to achieve leading development."

Wang Chongli said that at present, in the biopesticide industry, the proportion of start-up enterprises is relatively large, and with the continuous development of the industry, competition will become increasingly fierce. "In the future, there are two types of biopesticide enterprises are expected to occupy an advantage in the competition, one is a company with strong financial strength, which is conducive to better promote product research and development and promotion; The other is the company with better products and services, whose service ability is stronger, who has a stronger competitive advantage."

Zhou Puguo said that with the entry of giant enterprises and the gradual improvement of industry concentration, it is inevitable that the competition of biopesticide enterprises will become increasingly fierce. In summary, the future, including product, technology and management innovation, will become the "winning weapon" for biopesticide enterprises to achieve breakthroughs in competition.