Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) has entered into a joint venture with Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) for the sale and distribution of agrochemicals in India.
IFFCO will hold 51% of shares in the new company, IFFCO-MC Crop Science Private Limited (IFFCO-MC), while the remaining shares will be held by Tokyo-based MC.
IFFCO, India’s largest producer and distributor of fertilizers, delivers high quality fertilizers needed by farmers through their nationwide Cooperative Society network. IFFCO-MC will leverage the strength of the IFFCO brand and its extensive sales network to supply a number of agrochemicals, mainly herbicides, insecticides and fungicides, to the Indian market, beginning sometime in Q4 of this year.
India’s agrochemicals market, valued at some 250 billion yen in 2014, accounts for about 5% of the global total. As the country’s population increases, this volume is projected to reach about 350 billion yen in 2017.
Globally, the agrochemical market, which was valued at $197.9 billion in 2014, is expected to reach nearly $207.9 billion in 2015 and $257.5 billion in 2019, reflecting a five-year (2014-2019) compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.4%. Growing concerns related to the environment and the adverse effects of chemical-based agrochemicals on human health are driving future prospects for bio-based pesticides and fertilizers.
The joint venture between MC and IFFCO represents an example of how some major manufacturers of agrochemicals increasingly are incorporating different strategies for future growth. Recently, Dow AgroSciences LLC and Taminco U.S. Inc. entered into a supply agreement for the manufacture of choline hydroxide, a raw material that is used in the herbicide Enlist Duo. In 2012, Syngenta launched its Talon rodenticide product range in the U.K.