China’s Two Sessions for the year of 2020 (the 3rd Session of the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC) and the 3rd Session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC)) were held on 21–28 May. During the two sessions, Jinren Luo, Deputy of the National People’s Congress (NPC), held the opinion that the Chinese central government should enhance the overall planning and layout of its domestic pesticide industry and stabilise the industrial chain in the aspects of R&D, production, application, and promotion.

In addition, he also proposed that the government should establish several pesticide specialised industrial parks in suitable sites across the country in order to protect the development of the pesticide sector to a certain extent. In the meanwhile, related industrial policies should be formulated as soon as possible and the production distribution should also be optimised so that the industry can be guided to a healthy path of development.

The pesticide industry in China has made great progress since China’s reform and opening-up

Nowadays, a lot of Chinese pesticide enterprises and pesticide intermediate enterprises have a problem with their location because most of them are misunderstood and defined as pollution.  In particular, under the great pressure of China’s strict policy concerning the protection of environment, it is even harder for those pesticide enterprises to find a right spot. What’s worse, a couple of accidents in the related industry appeared from time to time in the recent years, for example, the explosion of Xiangshui Industrial Park, which does exert some negative impact on the pesticide enterprises and pesticide intermediate enterprises in China.

However, Jinren Luo insisted that despite the negative news, the contribution made by those enterprises should also be seen. For instance, the pesticide enterprises in China have increased more and more investment in environmental protection by giving priority to environmentally friendly production and reaching the standard of the discharge of three waste (waste water, waste gas, and waste residue).

The pesticide industry in China has made great progress since China’s reform and opening-up: China has become the biggest producer and exporter of pesticides in the world. However, some potential pesticide enterprises may be impeded during their reconstruction and relocation because of prejudice. Jinren Luo thinks that without a related policy support, it would be difficult for China’s pesticide industry to improve its competitiveness in the global market.

Asian countries such as India and Vietnam accelerate their production of pesticides

As for the reasons why pesticide specialised parks should be established, Jinren Luo explained in the following two aspects.

First of all, under the strict policy regarding China’s industries and the restriction in some areas, most of the Chinese pesticide enterprises tend to move to the north and the west of China. As a branch of fine chemical industry, Chinese pesticide industry usually lies in Jiangsu, Shandong and Zhejiang. But because the accidents involving some pharmaceutical enterprises happened recently in China, several chemical parks located along the coast have been shut down for an inspection. Consequently, pesticide supply was badly hit. Plus the increasingly high cost of labour force, production and operation in Southeast Coastal Zone, the pesticide enterprises had to move to the northwest, where the economic development relatively falls behind. The northwest in China has disadvantages in water shortage, less chemical raw materials and higher cost of logistics, which is very bad for the development of fine chemical industry.

Furthermore, while China’s pesticide industry gets restricted in its development, other Asian countries such as India and Vietnam accelerate their production of pesticides. Additionally, have advantages in better production costs and labour costs, which would be a challenge for China’s competitiveness in the global market.

For more information on China’s pesticides market, please check our pesticides resources or email emarket1@cnchemicals.com.