India becomes 2nd largest exporter of agrochemicals

The USA is the largest buyer of Indian made agrochemicals followed by Brazil and Japan

According to the latest data released by the WTO, India has emerged as the second largest exporter of agrochemicals in the world. The rank was sixth, 10 years ago. This is indeed a remarkable milestone towards the direction of Make in India and AatmaNirbhar Bharat, say industry observers.

The stellar performance on the export front is due mainly to Indian industry's innovative technical capability to quickly introduce post-patent products at competitive prices in the market – domestic and global. Our scientists and engineers are among the best in the world.

Here is an example: Chlorantraniliprole (CTPR) is the world largest selling insecticide with an estimated sale of Rs. 13,000 crores annually. Until last year India was importing this insecticide. Many Indian companies have now introduced indigenously manufactured CTPR in the market. This is expected to decrease its import into India and also make India an exporter of CTPR.

The Indian agrochemical industry fetches valuable trade surplus every year. The trade surplus sharply increased from Rs. 8,030 crores in 2017-18 to Rs. 28,908 crores in the last fiscal.

 Source: Ministry of Commerce & Industry

The USA is the largest buyer of Indian made agrochemicals followed by Brazil and Japan. This is a testimony to the high quality of Indian made agrochemicals which are used in over 140 countries worldwide.

Globally the agrochemicals market is estimated to be US$78 bn, almost 75% of this is of post-patent products. India is fast emerging as a preferred global hub for sourcing the post-patent agrochemicals.

In order to boost domestic production and to curtail imports, Crop Care Federation of India (CCFI)  has recommended certain measures to the Government of India to discourage import of ready to use pesticide formulations. “The association is of the firm opinion that the custom duty needs to be revised to 20% on technical and 30% and import of formulations to maintain a delta of at least 10% between the two custom tariffs,” Harish Mehta, Senior Advisor,  CCFI said. 

Referring to India’s on-going discussions on Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with the EU, UK and others, Deepak Shah, Chairman, Crop Care Federation of India (CCFI) cautioned against granting any TRIPs plus measures such as data exclusivity to the western MNCs as it would adversely affect the growth of India's export-oriented agrochemical and pharmaceutical industry as well.

Shah further said that Indian companies have in recent years made significant investments in establishing larger and new production facilities to cater to the domestic and global markets. Backward integration, capacity expansion and new registrations would foster the growth of Indian agrochemical industry. With favourable policy facilitations, the Indian agrochemical industry is confident of doubling exports in the next three years.