Import Of Chemical Defensives Reaches $4.28 Billion In The First Five Months Of 2026
07 July 2026, Brazil: Brazilian imports of chemical pesticides reached US$ 4.28 billion between January and May 2026. The value is 6.8% lower than the same period of 2025 (US$ 4.59 billion). Of this amount, highlight the formulated product entry, which reached US$ 1.4 billion, just over a third. The same occurs in volume: imports decreased by 6.5% in the same period, from 537.3 thousand tons to 502.6 thousand tons. The detailing of foreign purchases shows a defensive market in adjustment, with a reduction in average prices and a greater share of generic products in imports. The balance sheet is from CropData, CropLife Brazil’s data portal, which now incorporates three unprecedented functionalities in the Chemicals segment – Import of Formulated Product, Import by Active Ingredient and Marketing.
“The retreat does not mean less protection in the field. The data reveal a change in the composition of purchases in Brazil, with growing participation of generic products, the post-patent, widely available in the global market. With tight margins, debt and credit compromised by judicial recoveries, the producer is diversifying the portfolio. The country faces bottlenecks in the approval of new technologies, with one of the longest registration deadlines among the world’s large agricultures. When innovation arrives late, the market is oriented towards what is already available. The advancement of generics also has a regulatory reading, which needs greater predictability,” analyzes the executive manager of CropLife Brazil, Renato Gomides.
Import Formulated Product
In this functionality, the user will be able to identify the commercial performance (value, volume and average price) of the formulated products, by segment classification (acaricides, household, fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, nematicides and growth regulators), active ingredient and the five main countries of origin of the entries. In the case of those formulated, herbicides had greater prominence in Brazilian imports, with US$ 471 million and 112,000 tons, however both value, volume and average ticket are marked by retraction between 2025 and 2026. Next, there are insecticides with US$ 295 million, and fungicides with US$ 249 million, also in decline.
“Herbicides represent 34% of the value and almost 45% of the volume of formulated products imported in the first five months of 2026. The protagonism is above all agronomic. Weeds compete with the crop for water, light and nutrients. And in Brazil, with no-till widely adopted, chemical control is irreplaceable. It eliminates mechanical soil revolvement, preventing erosion and compaction. The producer has expanded applications and the use of pre-emergents to ensure efficiency in management, especially in the soybean, corn and cotton system, where protection in the early stages is decisive for productivity,” said Gomides, regarding the herbicide class.
When observing the origin of purchases, China is the main country of Brazilian imports of formulated herbicides, with 72% of the value (US$ 338 million) and 90% of the total volume (100,000 tons). From a value point of view, the United States and Germany are in the sequence with 10% (US$ 47 million) and 5% (US$ 26 million), respectively. Already in volume, the Asian country is followed by the US and India.
Import By Active Ingredient
In the second new functionality of the platform it is possible to analyze the imports of chemical defensives for up to 19 active ingredients, comparing formulated product and technical product. The information allows analysis by value, volume and average price, in addition to the five main countries of origin of the entries.
Marketing
The third unprecedented functionality of the chemical segment displays the marketing of products formulated in the Brazilian domestic market, from the statistical base of the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA). The available data (2024) indicates that Brazil sold 826,000 tons of formulated products. Considering the production of up to three crops and agricultural extension of the country with grains, coffee, sugar cane, fruit and vegetable and areas with eucalyptus and pine, sales of chemical pesticides totaled 7.59 kg/ha in 2023. This volume and metric indicator per hectare is used by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to estimate the consumption of the product in the country.
Cropdata
CropData is the data platform of CropLife Brazil that gathers, in an unprecedented way and in one place, information from the seed, bioinputs, chemicals and pollinators sectors. In it it is possible to find billing, credit, taxes and research and development (R&D) figures of agricultural technologies, as well as market indicators, foreign trade, ESG, jobs and wages, product records and use/hectares. In addition to the consultation and democratization of access to sectoral data, the CD aims to give transparency of the solutions sector for the field, promotion of industry bases and expanding public access to strategic information of Brazilian agribusiness.
Also Read: Crystal Crop Protection and Corteva Sign Collaboration Agreement
Global Agriculture is an independent international media platform covering agri-business, policy, technology, and sustainability. For editorial collaborations, thought leadership, and strategic communications, write to pr@global-agriculture.com
