Fungicides
Chemicals that protect crops from fungal disease: triazoles, strobilurins, SDHIs and multisite products such as mancozeb and copper; Brazil's soybean rust makes it a big market.
Fine chemicals · Crop protection · No. 100
- Product family
- Feedstock: Minerals and salts
- about 0.8-1.0 Mt of active ingredient a year including copper and sulphur products (indicative, basis: about a quarter of world pesticide use of about 3.7 Mt a.i. in 2022, FAOSTAT)
- HS 380892
A bad rust season in Brazil or a wet summer in Europe can send fungicide sales soaring within weeks.
Chart: Illustration: Fungicides
Where it comes from
Chart: Map of where it comes from
Mancozeb is precipitated from ethylenediamine, carbon disulphide and metal salts, using about 0.57 t of carbon disulphide per tonne; newer triazoles need long syntheses.
Three things to know
- Each tonne of mancozeb carries at least about 200 kg of manganese and 25 kg of zinc.
- The EU decided not to renew mancozeb in December 2020, so its use there ended in early 2022.
- Asian soybean rust in Brazil needs two to four sprays a season, making soybeans about 18% of fungicide spending.
The journey
- 1 Metals, mineralsManganese, zinc and copper salts, sulphur
- 2 IntermediatesEthylenediamine, carbon disulphide, triazoles
- 3 Technical synthesisPrecipitation or multistep batch chemistry
- 4 FormulationPowders and granules, kept dry and cool
- 5 Crop spraysPotatoes, grapes, wheat, soybeans and rice