Guangzhou, Guangdong -- (SBWIRE) -- 09/18/2011 -- Jingangmycin, an antibiotics fungicide, had ever dominated the domestic market of rice sheath blight control for as long as around 30 years. However, its market share has been gradually shrinking in Chinese main rice planting areas in recent years mainly due to its decreasing control effect and thinner profits, as well as the competition from other products., according to CCM’s September Issue of Fungicides China News 2011.

As one of the major rice diseases, the occurrence area of rice sheath blight all over the country exceeds accumulatively 16.67 million ha. every year, which has been seriously threatening the production of rice in China. Since the advent of jingangmycin in 1970s, this biological fungicide has been received favourably in the domestic market.

Thanks to the good control effect on rice sheath blight in the early stage of application, many domestic producers attached great importance to the development and production of jingangmycin. Therefore, the output of jingangmycin (calculated by 5% AS, similarly hereinafter) had increased in China over the last few decades, especially in the late 1980s.

For example, the total output of jingangmycin in Zhejiang, one of the provinces distinguished for its jingangmycin production, had reached about 57,000 tonnes in 1987. It is worth noting that the annual output of jingangmycin in China has been reduced to 30,000~40,000 tonnes in recent years, which indicates that jingangmycin is encountering the predicament of shrinking market domestically.

The decreasing control effect on rice sheath blight is one of the key factors leading to the market shrinkage of jingangmycin. After several decades of successive use, the control effect of jingangmycin 5% AS against rice sheath blight has been reduced from about 90% to 65%.

Moreover, the persistent period of jingangmycin has also been shortened by around 65% to 7 days from original 20 days. Under the circumstances, increasing its application dosage and frequency has been a common way in recent years so as to achieve better control effect.

With some new products to control rice sheath blight constantly emerging, the market share of jingangmycin in China's main rice planting areas has suffered carve-up to a great extent. In particular, these new fungicides mainly include hexaconazole, tebuconazole, prochloraz, propiconazole•difenoconazole, polyoxin and so on.

Thereinto, the sales of hexaconazole with high efficiency has been heating up in the domestic rice sheath blight control market in recent years. Owing to the enhanced promotion, some companies' hexaconazole formulation products are very popular, such as 30% SC produced by Shaanxi Sunger Road Bio-Science Co., Ltd., 50% WDG produced by Shaanxi Meibang Pesticide Co., Ltd., 10% EC produced by Lianyungang Liben Agro-chemical Co., Ltd., etc.

Besides hexaconazole, propiconazole•difenoconazole, an excellent mixed formulation to control rice sheath blight, has also been in popularity in the domestic market, especially in Hunan, Hubei, Zhejiang, etc. It is estimated that the market share of propiconazole•difenoconazole will continue to go up in 2011.

Last but not least, many domestic dealers and retailers are reluctant to sell jingangmycin mainly due to the relatively thinner profit, which has hindered the development of jingangmycin accordingly. Although many fungicides' prices have witnessed rise with the increasing production cost, it is rather difficult for most domestic peasants to accept the price increase of jingangmycin as its previous price is very low and keeps stable for many years. It is inevitable that the profit margin of jingangmycin will confront further decrease.

Actually, some domestic producers of jingangmycin technical have gradually cut back or stopped their production in consideration of the shrinking market. For instance, a staffer of Jiangsu Jiatai Chemical Co., Ltd. revealed that the company has not produced this product for several years.

It is well known that Zhejiang Qianjiang Biochemical Co., Ltd. is the largest domestic producer of jingangmycin technical with a capacity of 2,000t/a. As reported in Fungicides China News 1104, the company has begun to reduce jingangmycin's production since 2010.

It is estimated that the output of jingangmycin in China will continue to go down to a certain extent in the near future with the gradual reduction of jingangmycin production; the situation of the shrinking market share for this biological fungicide will remain grim.

Source: Fungicides China News 1109
http://www.cnchemicals.com/Newsletter/NewsletterDetail.aspx?id=2
(September 13, 2011, Guangzhou)

Main content of Fungicides China News 1109:
Jiangsu Lanfeng's fungicide business significantly increases in H1 2011
Noposion's performance steadily grows in H1 2011
Changqing Agrochemical's fungicide business performs poor in H1 2011
Market share of jingangmycin gradually shrinking in China
Thiediazole copper to vitalize the market of disease control
Shandong Dacheng to further cement fosetyl-aluminium production
Sichuan Lomon launches 20t/a abscisic acid technical production line
Shaanxi Meibang's fenoxanil to be on the market
Hunan Haili to expand thiophanate-methyl technical production
Demand for trimethyl orthoformate to keep rising in pesticide field
Ethylenediamine capacity sees jump in China
Chemical pesticide application shows decreasing trend in China
Fungicides to control rice blast sell well recently
Azoxystrobin: price plummets amid capacity expansions since 2008
Southern rice black streaked dwarf continues spreading
Cotton verticillium wilt stepping into high occurrence period

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