It's a matter of pride that India has now become the second largest exporter of agrochemicals in the world. We have surpassed the USA and are only behind China. "In the last five years, we have almost doubled from US $2.6 billion to about US $5.5 million, which is a huge growth, and this figure could be taken to at least double the figure in the next 10 years,” said Harish Mehta, Senior Advisor, Crop Care Federation of India (CCFI) during his presentation titled, ‘Global Footprint: India-2nd Largest Exporter of Agrochemicals’ at the AgroChem Summit 2023 held in New Delhi on December 15, 2023.

Sharing the market scenario, Mehta says: “Brazil and Japan are the two other countries which are following in terms of buying from India. India has made over 150 countries as their customers and these customers are all across the globe. The major market is for generics and largely about 75% of the total market is governed by post patent products. Therefore, the impression that companies are selling new chemicals and green chemistry may not be very true. When you are talking about exports, the other point of concern would be the imports. What has been bothering us is the reduction in our gross trade surplus.

“The imports are about 14,000 crores as against exports in rupee terms at about 44,000 crores. The trade surplus is almost close to $30,000, which is a matter of pride. India would continue with their stride going up and the reasons are plenty there. First reason I can think of is that we are using the chemical judiciously, as per the recommendation of the state governments. We have been propagating this to all the companies, including Indian companies and multinationals about use of these chemicals. We have the new products coming in also and we find that the domestic market is totally met by this demand and so also the global markets can be fed by the same particular molecules.”

Backward integration, capacity expansion and new restrictions would foster the growth of the Indian agrochemical industry, believes Mehta. He calls the increase in imports a big issue.

"The only cause of concern for us is in terms of surging imports which are coming in from several countries both in terms of technical as well as readymade formulation which is not really the right thing to happen. 55% of the imports coming to this country are readymade formulations.

“We are governed by various acts of law at center level and I see no reason to feel confident that there would be any problem in terms of quality. But what has been happening is that the customs tariff is applicable on limited imports whereas 85% under others categories that are not classified. If you take the list of molecules in terms of technical formulations, only about 55 of them, maybe about 14 of them have been added recently by the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers. We find 85% of them are coming in the others category where the source, quality, and quantity is not known. We have been telling the ministry and the government to create specific actions and codes both for technical and formulations as well. 8 digit code is a possibility which we are willing to partner with the government to decide textures and codes for all the reasons. We are hearing that from 1st October, the description of the products and other details including name of the active ingredient will have to be mentioned on imports coming in. We have written to the director of customs to ensure that whatever comes in the country at the ports, details must be taken and samples also tested."

Expressing optimism about the industry's manufacturing capabilities, Mehta says: "India has become a manufacturing hub. We have been seeing growth coming in and we find that almost 40-45% growth is witnessed by these industries. Indian manufacturers are scoring in terms of cost efficiency and in terms of production capabilities. For example, Indian companies introduced organophosphorus pesticides to compete with the European manufacturers. Several plants in Europe had to close down, likewise Indian companies broke the monopoly of producing higher purity percentages compared to their price.”

“The manufacturers with their own agrochemical plants have plans to expand their capacities but have been waiting for the Indian government’s approval of the production linked incentive(PLI) scheme which will come in hopefully soon."

On the innovation front, Mehta is confident that India will do well in the near future. “Almost 5.5% of the turnover is spent on R&D by the Indian companies. Some foreign funded NGOs and activists have been constantly trying to tell us that things are pretty bad in India. But at the moment we feel that people have been doing a lot of R&D here. Our scientists and engineers are ready with more patents for the future. We can definitely bring in a lot of innovation and make different formulations that could be used by farmers very conveniently."

The AgroChem Summit 2023 themed, ‘Boosting Production Through Sustainable Agriculture Practices’, witnessed attendance by stalwarts and other stakeholders from the agrochemical sector across India.

The Summit was supported by the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Government of India.

Gold partners of the summit were Godrej Agrovet Ltd., SML Ltd., and Somaiya Vidyavihar University.

Industry association supporting AgroChem Summit 2023 included Agro Chem Federation of India (ACFI); Crop Care Federation of India (CCFI); Crop Life India (CLI); Pesticides Manufacturers & Formulators Association of India (PFFAI); and Biological Agri Solutions Association of India (BASAI).