Fungicides: Overview
Why potatoes, grapes and wheat need the most fungicide
What this tab covers What the chemical is, how big its market is, what it is used for (with shares, volumes, why it wins and what could replace it), and its chain from raw material to end user. Ends with three things to remember.Fungicides prevent or cure diseases such as rusts, blights, mildews and blasts that can wipe out a crop in days. They are a little under 30% of a crop protection market of $66-85 billion in 2025, depending on the publisher (indicative). The modern classes (triazoles, strobilurins and fluorinated SDHIs) are fine chemicals; the old multisite products are metal salts: mancozeb uses manganese and zinc, and copper fungicides use copper. UPL and Indofil make India a world centre for mancozeb. Europe's ban on mancozeb from 2022 and resistance to single-site products shape the market.
Volume 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) Market value about $19-24 billion (2025, indicative, basis: about 28% of a $66-85 billion crop protection market) Growth about 3-4% a year in value (indicative) AgroPages via AgriMarketing (Mar 2025); HNY Research via DRI (Apr 2026); Spherical Insights (2026); FAOSTAT (indicative)Key uses
| Use | Share | Annual volume | Why this commodity | Alternatives |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fruit, vegetables, grapes and potatoes | 35% | about $7.4 billionbasis | Late blight in potatoes and tomatoes, downy and powdery mildew in grapes, and scab in apples need protective sprays every 7-14 days in wet seasons. Mancozeb and copper are the backbone; single-site products are added for curative action. indicative share | resistant varieties biofungicides (Bacillus, Trichoderma) forecasting-based spraying |
| Cereals (wheat, barley) | 25% | about $5.3 billionbasis | Septoria, rusts and fusarium in European and North American wheat; triazole-SDHI mixtures at flag leaf protect yield and grain quality. indicative share | resistant varieties rotation seed treatment only |
| Soybeans | 18% | about $3.8 billionbasis | Asian soybean rust in Brazil needs two to four sprays a season of triazole, strobilurin and SDHI mixtures, increasingly with mancozeb or chlorothalonil added to manage resistance. indicative share; Brazil is the largest crop protection market at $14.3 billion (AgroPages 2025) | rust-tolerant varieties soybean-free period ('vazio sanitario') |
| Rice | 7% | about $1.5 billionbasis | Blast and sheath blight in Asia; tricyclazole, isoprothiolane and azoxystrobin mixtures are common in India. indicative share | resistant varieties balanced nitrogen use |
| Maize, seed treatment, turf and other | 15% | about $3.2 billionbasis | Seed coatings protect seedlings from soil-borne fungi; maize and turf use strobilurins and triazoles. indicative share | biological seed treatments |
From raw material to user
- Metals and minerals Manganese and zinc sulphates for mancozeb (about 0.2 t Mn and 0.025 t Zn per t, FAO minimum content); copper for copper oxychloride and hydroxide (about 57-64% Cu); elemental sulphur.
- Organic intermediates Ethylenediamine and carbon disulphide for dithiocarbamates; triazole and chlorinated aromatics for DMIs; fluorinated pyrazole acids for SDHIs.
- Technical synthesis Mancozeb is a precipitation process at 50-100 kt/yr scale; SDHIs and strobilurins are multistep fine chemistry at 1-10 kt/yr (indicative).
- Formulation Wettable powders (mancozeb 75% WP), WG, SC and EC; many products are sold as two- or three-way mixtures to slow resistance.
- Distribution Seasonal; Brazil, Europe, the US and India are the largest markets.
Made from (commodity table)
Zn ZincMn ManganeseCu CopperThree things to know
- Each tonne of mancozeb carries at least about 200 kg of manganese and 25 kg of zinc, which makes it one of the few agrochemicals with a metals feedstock (FAO specification, indicative).
- The EU decided not to renew mancozeb in December 2020, ending use in early 2022; it remains a top-selling fungicide in Brazil and India (European Commission; indicative).
- Fungicide manufacture emits about 16 kg CO2e per kg of active ingredient, lower than herbicides or insecticides (Field to Market, Audsley 2009).