Market Trends of Fruit & Vegetable Crop Protection Industry
Growing Demand for Food Safety and Quality Driving the Market
Being essentially less toxic, when compared to regular synthetic crop protection chemicals, biopesticides typically affect only the target pest and other organisms that are closely related to it, as against broad-spectrum conventional pesticides, which can be harmful to other organisms. Greater investment in R&D is likely to be a key factor in the area, now that many major agrochemical companies have an interest in the sector. This factor, coupled with the aforementioned market opportunities, suggest that the biopesticides sector may perform better than the crop-protection sector.
Asia-Pacific dominates the Market
Fruits and vegetables are largely grown in India, China, and Japan, and it involves a very high usage rate of pesticides. Japan is a significant market for crop protection chemicals for fruits and vegetables, occupying a share of more than 15% of the total Asia-Pacific market in 2018. The country has the highest pesticide usage per hectare compared to any other country in the world at approximately 12 kg per hectare. In India, synthetic pesticides have been extensively used for alleviating the estimated 45% gross loss of crops, due to the infestation of pests and diseases. Major factors driving the Indian market include greater demand for food grains, limited availability of arable land, along with increasing exports, growth in horticulture and floriculture, and increasing public awareness regarding synthetic pesticides and biopesticides.
