Fungicides: Cycles

Why weather, not price, drives fungicide booms and busts

What this tab covers How its prices and margins move: past booms and busts with price levels, the spread or margin that the industry watches, the drivers of the cycle and the metrics to track.

Fungicide demand swings with weather: a wet year in Europe or a bad rust season in Brazil can lift sales sharply. Prices follow the common agrochemical cycle: Chinese supply shocks and overbuying in 2021-2022, then long destocking in 2023-2025. Bans reshape trade, as when the EU ended mancozeb. Metal-based products also track manganese, zinc and copper prices. Listed company revenue shows the cycle: UPL fell from about Rs 53,576 crore in FY2023 to Rs 43,098 crore in FY2024 (indicative) as Brazil and Europe destocked.

The spread to watch Mancozeb price minus manganese, zinc, ethylenediamine and CS2 cost

Not published. Margins are visible only in company results (UPL, Indofil is private).

Booms and busts

2020-2022
The EU did not renew mancozeb (December 2020); use ended in early 2022. Indian and Latin American mancozeb makers redirected sales to Brazil, Africa and Asia.
not published
2021-2022
Chinese energy curbs and freight disruption raised technical prices across agrochemicals; distributors in Brazil stocked heavily.
not published for fungicides; glyphosate nearly tripled (Bichos de Campo, 2021)
2023-2025
Destocking in Brazil and the US and cheap Chinese generics cut prices and revenue for generic fungicide sellers.
UPL revenue about Rs 53,576 crore (FY2023) to Rs 43,098 crore (FY2024) and Rs 46,637 crore (FY2025) (indicative); India's agrochemical exports fell about 22% in FY2024 (Rubix)
2026
Higher sulphur, energy and freight costs from Gulf disruption raised input costs; management of PI Industries flagged geopolitical input cost risk.
not published (PI Industries, May 2026)

What drives the cycle

Weather and disease pressure. Wet, warm seasons raise spray counts; drought cuts them.
Resistance. Loss of efficacy in single-site classes brings back multisites and new molecules.
Regulation. EU bans on mancozeb, chlorothalonil and some triazoles shift demand and trade.
Chinese supply and channel inventory. Same cycle as other agrochemicals.

Metrics to track

Metric	Why it matters	Where to track it
Brazil soybean rust reports (Consorcio Antiferrugem)	biggest single fungicide demand driver	Embrapa
UPL Latin America and Europe revenue	generic fungicide demand	UPL quarterly results
Chinese technical prices	generic cost floor	CCM