In contrast to the situation of insecticides and herbicides which witnessed strong export growth in the first three quarters of 2013, China's export volume of fungicides was 54,460 tonnes, with an increase of only 0.40% year on year. The overseas demand for many fungicides, such as carbendazim, difenoconazole, mancozeb and thiophanate-methyl was very weak this year. For the export of carbendazim, the worst time is yet to come. The MPF of Brazil recently filed a lawsuit to suspend the registrations of carbendazim-based fungicides in Brazil. As Brazil is the largest importer of China's carbendazim, this potential regulation in Brazil may hurt the domestic carbendazim industry.
The export of azoxystrobin is an exception, as its export volume showed a huge increase this year. However, with the soaring registration of the product in China, the competition for azoxystrobin is expected to be very fierce in the future. From July to Oct. 2013, five azoxystrobin technical registrations were approved, increasing the total amount of azoxystrobin technical registrations to 44 by the end of Oct. 2013.
The RMB exchange rate in this issue is USD1.00=RMB6.145, sourced from the People's Bank of China, except for three price updates on Dec. 8, 2013 (USD1.00=RMB6.113).

