The Brazilian nematicides market for sugar cane has grown by nearly 50% in the past five years, with biological nematicides playing a prominent role in this growth.

The Brazilian nematicides market for sugar cane has grown by nearly 50% in the past five years, with biological nematicides playing a prominent role in this growth.

 

Brazilian sugarcane nematicides sales (unit: million reais), and the proportion of chemical nematicides (blue) and biological nematicides (orange)

 

A survey by Kynetec Brazil puts overall pesticide revenue at 9.2 billion reais by 2023. Sugarcane is the third most important crop in the agrochemical industry. Research results obtained by AgroPages show that this is a 7% increase in sales compared with 8.6 billion reais in 2022. Sugarcane is of extremely strategic importance to nematicide manufacturers.

 

Sales of sugarcane nematicides in the country reached 403 million reais last year, up 47% from 2019 (273 million reais), according to Kynetec Brazil's FarmTrak survey. The state of São Paulo contributes 59% of sugarcane nematicide sales (R$235.8 million), followed by the Central and Western Region with 29% (R$118.4 million). Kynetec said 64% (R$257 million) of total nematicide sales in 2023 were bionematicides. Lucas Naves Montrasio, an expert at the consultancy, said that five years ago, transactions involving such products accounted for only 21% (58 million reais) of nematicides, and growers are constantly switching to bionematicides.

 

Research also shows that Brazil maintains about 9 million hectares of sugarcane planting area every year. More than 50% (4.926 million hectares) of this is in São Paulo state, followed by 23% (2.037 million hectares) in the central and western regions.

 

Montrasio also said that nematicides were used in 15% of the sugarcane grown in Brazil in 2023 (1.329 million hectares). He said that the Midwest and Sao Paulo states have the highest adoption rates: 21% and 16% of the planting area respectively; the soil characteristics of the Midwest cause the nematode situation to be more serious in this region, so the application of nematicides in this region is more important.