Despite their miniscule size, nematodes are one of the world’s most destructive agricultural pests, causing an estimated $80 billion in crop damage annually. In large part due to their proliferation, the market for nematicide products to control infestations remains robust, although somewhat fluid as formulators work to keep effective products in the marketplace as proven treatments falter due to health and environmental concerns. With a promising market and a new slate of products on the horizon, the nematicide market is looking strong over the next five years.
Global Nematicide Sales by Region, 2009
Nematodes by the Numbers
These tiny parasites are microscopic roundworms, found in massive quantities virtually everywhere—in the soil, water, and inside other plants and animals around the world. A single gram of soil can contain more than 1,000 plant parasitic nematodes, and with more than 10,000 species classified, they are one of the most prolific on the planet, outnumbering even insects in their population. While some live freely in the soil and water, the most problematic are parasitic, invading plants, animals, and insects. Some 3 billion people around the world are currently infected by parasitic varieties, including whipworm, Ascaris, hookworm, and filarial worms, while heartworm and other varieties affect pets and livestock.
Ancient organisms nearly as old as the earth itself, the voracious plant parasitic varieties are a hidden enemy of crops posing a major challenge for agriculturalists around the world. Left untreated, plant parasitic nematodes invade vital crops such as cotton, soybeans, bananas, coffee, corn, citrus, and other vegetables and global commodities, inflicting incredible damage by literally sucking the life out of plants, diverting nutrients from the roots, diminishing yields and increasing vulnerability to diseases, drought and other problems. To complicate the problem, nematode damage can be very difficult to diagnose, as it often looks like plant disease or phytotoxicity even to a trained observer.
Because of this widespread problem—nematodes affect crops on virtually every continent except Antarctica—the market for nematicides is substantial. At the grower level, vegetables, specialty crops, fruit, field crops, and other crop pursuits comprise a nearly $900 million dollar industry, led by the United States, France, Japan, Brazil, and Italy.
Demand by crops is heavily tipped toward vegetables, which account for almost 60% of total nematicide sales, followed by specialty crops like coffee, nuts, sugarcane, and tobacco. Nematicides are primarily available in two different delivery forms, fumigants and contact applications, with a very small portion of product currently in the form of integrated seed treatment. While fumigants are administered several weeks before planting, contact nematicides are applied during planting, as both treatments are most effective as preventative measures taken before the root system has even fully developed.
Likewise, strong demand for pest-free conditions exists in the second largest market segment: institutions, of which 90% are school facilities. The Lunch Lady’s mystery stew is already of questionable origins. Imagine Little Mary coming home from school to tell her mother about the cockroach she found in the cafeteria – a situation no school administrator wants to deal with.
Contact Compounds Abound
By measure of acreage treated, contact treatment products comprise the vast majority of nematicides, with more than three-fourths of treated acres using this method. These products are most often used primarily for insect pest control, but do provide some nematode deterrent. While contact products dominate by acreage, they pale in comparison to fumigants by value. Because these are typically less expensive than fumigants, they are more likely to be used on lower-cost, high-acreage field crops. This is the leading product form in Argentina and Brazil, China, Germany Mexico, South Africa, and Great Britain.
The biggest challenge facing the contact nematicides market is its shrinking product base. It was just announced that Amvac (American Vanguard Corporation) has acquired both Mocap Ethoprophos and Nemacur Fenamiphos from Bayer. This potentially will allow Nemacur to remain in the market as Bayer was looking to withdraw it. Carbofuran is also being withdrawn from some countries which will leave a void in the market. Bayer’s pending phase-out of Temik due to toxicity problems with operator safety in the citrus, potato, and cotton industries could widen the gap. Proper distribution of contact formulas has long been a problem for chemical producers in minimizing the handling risk for applicators.
Fumigant Formulas
By value, fumigant products dominate the nematicides market. Because of their higher cost, these gaseous formulas injected into the soil are mainly used on high-value crops like vegetables and fruits. They are the leading product control form in the United States, as well as France, Italy, and Spain. Many countries, especially in the United States and Europe, disallow the use of fumigant products, and the state of California will likely restrict their use even more over the next few years as well.
The gradual phase-out of the leading fumigant product, methyl bromide, has been a major issue in the nematicides market overall. This fumigant product, disallowed over a gradual reduction program in most applications due to ozone depleting characteristic of bromine chemicals, has proven difficult to replace with a suitable and effective alternative. As methyl bromide usage has constricted, its price has gone up considerably, providing a powerful incentive for growers to find alternative product—and suppliers to develop more affordable product to reclaim market share.
New Product on the Horizon
Amid growing environmental and safe-handling concerns, product innovation has been vigorous, with the majority directed toward a suitable replacement for methyl bromide. Chloropicrin, sold under several brands, is one that has shown promise, as has Dow’s Telone line of 1,3-dichloropropene, most of which also contains chloropicrin. Midas from Arysta, which contains iodomethane, has been gaining registrations around the world, including recently for use in California. It is a broad-spectrum fumigant that has proven effective, but quite expensive.
The EPA recently registered Paladin, a mixture of chloropicrin and dimethyl disulfide for the treatment of strawberries, fruiting vegetables, melons, and gourds. It will be marketed in the United States by United Phosphorous and has shown broad-spectrum control of soil-borne pathogens, parasitic nematodes, and weeds, but issues surrounding the cost and the smell (apparently detectable at concentrations measured in parts per billion, despite toxicity in parts per million) have been a challenge.
Meanwhile, Dow’s sulfuryl fluoride has proven to be an odorless product with good movement in beds and rapid decline. Registration submission has been made, but will likely not be received until a year from now.
Seed treatment is emerging as a cost-effective alternative to the traditional chemical and fumigant treatments. Both Syngenta and Bayer have products on the market, and Monsanto is under agreement with Plant Health Care to commercialize harpin seed treatment, which uses a protein that activates the natural defense mechanism of corn, soybeans, cotton, canola, and other vegetables, literally working from the inside to defend against invasive nematodes.
Room for Growth
The fact that nematodes are virtually impossible to eliminate will, for better or for worse, help to naturally maintain a healthy market for nematicides. With the void left by methyl bromide remaining largely unfilled by a broad-use alternative, there remains an opportunity for industry players to develop new products that meet the needs of growers. Among their wish list, according to our research, growers cited full-spectrum control, crop, environmental and operator safety, a short pre-harvest interval, pre- and post-planting application, persistent efficacy throughout the crop cycle, combination products for fungicides and insecticides and low rates per hectare to reduce handling and waste disposal. Given this lofty list of demands, alongside greater emphasis on resistant seed types and hybrids, we suspect developers will be hard at work to deliver. While not all crops and countries will contribute to growth, those that do—including the largest category, vegetables, and field crops that use newer seed treatment products—will climb moderately through 2014.
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