In recent years, the development of Chinese pesticide industry is increasingly mature with exports of technical concentrates (TC) accounting for a dominant share of the globe trade and exports of pesticide formulations increasing year after year. However, R&D and production level of Chinese pesticide formulations still lag behind multinationals. There is still a long way to go for Chinese formulation products to gain a foothold in the international market. Considering the current situation, a survey was conducted on the key issues in the development of China agrochemical formulations. The main problems encountered in developing China’s pesticide formulation industry were researched and a number of suggestions and solutions were collected.

In answering “What do you think is the main bottleneck/problem for developing China’s agrochemical formulations?” 26% of the respondents chose the option that “lack of R&D capability of formulation”; secondly, 14% of the respondents chose the option that “unsound formulation production and management system”. Currently China F&P industry remains at a low level and lacks a good management system, which impedes R&D and production of new formulation products. In addition, another 14% of the respondents believed backward after-sale service and technical service is the impediment and 12% believed lack of formulation brands hinders the development of the pesticide formulation industry.

It is worth noting that there are a considerable number of respondents (14%) chose the option that “screening of the formulations lacks enough supporting information”. This reflects the plight currently faced by the formulation research staff.

According to the survey, the investment in R&D of Chinese pesticide formulation business averages less than 3% of the total annual expenditure. Without enough R&D investment, research staff are like making bricks without straw. Companies should recognize that new product development has a very high input-output ratio. To take an example, Hunan Dongyong Chemical Co., Ltd. invested 1.5 million yuan in the R&D of new products. It successfully developed and registered two formulations. After the launch to the market, the sales of the two new products exceeded 10 million yuan, bringing a profit of over 4 million yuan.

Relevant information shows that multinationals not only have an extensive information system as the base for R&D of new products, but are also good at capturing market opportunities for new products from the information; however currently few domestic enterprises have achieved success on this aspect.

Data shows that during the first half of 2014 the exports of Chinese pesticide formulations accounted for 65% of the total pesticide exports. Industry insiders said that China does not lack “awakening” enterprises of both ambition and sharp business sense in the agrochemical industry. Enterprises such as Huapont-Nutrichem, Nanjing Red Sun, and Sinochem have already begun to show their ambitions in the formulation market. In an increasingly competitive world of an ever-changing agrichemical landscape, more outstanding national enterprises which take formulation brand management as their goal will emerge in the future.