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Non-Ag Pesticides Market Growing
September 2, 2000

The global market for non-agricultural pesticides is currently worth about US$7 billion per year and is growing approximately 4% annually. Today, at least 12% of global sales of all pesticides are for uses ranging from over-the-counter sprays bought by homeowners to control flies to selective herbicides applied to golf courses to commodity pesticides used to treat timber.

Home & garden pesticides

The United States accounts for about 40% of the world market for household pesticides with annual sales exceeding US$1 billion. China is the second largest national market with over US$580 million of household insecticides purchased each year. Industry analysts predict, that with continued growth of the Chinese economy, the market for household insecticides may be one of the most dynamic in the entire pesticide industry during the next ten years.

The most widely used active ingredients in home pesticides are synthetic pyrethroids such as deltamethrin, esbiothrin, pyrethrins, s-bioallethrin and bioremethrin.

The United States also dominates the world market for garden pesticides with sales of over $1.5 billion per year. The United Kingdom is a distant second with sales of US$155 million.

The market for over-the-counter pesticides is very different than that for agrochemicals. During the 1990s, Monsanto, Cyanamid and Aventis all spun off their non-agricultural pesticide products to consumer goods companies such as Scotts, Sara Lee and Reckitt & Colman. In general, the leading agrochemical manufacturers produce only the active ingredients and not the final product.

Bayer is the main exception with investments in a joint venture in the U.S. to develop home insecticide brands, a joint venture in China and acquisition of the garden products businesses of Planfer in Sweden and Pbi Home & Garden in the United Kingdom.

The U.S. company Scotts is the world’s leading supplier of branded consumer garden pesticides with sales of US$1,648 million in 1999. Last year, the company spent US$69 million advertising its brands in North America. Scotts is the sole agent for Roundup (glyphosate) in the U.S., Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Turf pesticides

The global market for turf care products is approximately US$850 million per year, about half for golf courses throughout the world and most of the remaining half is used by lawn care operators in the U.S. Each year, U.S. lawn care operators apply about US$440 million worth of pesticides. Over 125 new golf courses were built in Europe in 1999, while about 40 per year are built in Japan. Japanese golf courses now account for one third of commercially-applied non-agricultural pesticides.

This information is from the report, World Non-Agricultural Pesticide Markets by Agrow Reports, March 2000. It is available for US$1,670 from PJB publications; phone (44-20) 8332 8965; fax (44-20) 8332 8992.

Source: Agrow: World Crop Protection News, June 2, 2000.

Contact: PANNA.

PANUPS is a weekly email news service providing resource guides and reporting on pesticide issues that don’t always get coverage by the mainstream media. It’s produced by Pesticide Action Network North America, a non-profit and non-governmental organization working to advance sustainable alternatives to pesticides worldwide.

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