China’s pesticide industry in 2013 has witnessed significant increase in economic benefit, with its main business revenue and profits both hitting a new record high. According to statistics on sales of the pesticide enterprises in 2013 by China Crop Protection Industry Association (CCPIA), the list of top 100 Chinese pesticide enterprises by sales in 2014 has been released in May 7th in Hefei.
According to statistics, the output of the Chinese pesticide industry in 2013 maintained a modest growth, an increase of 1.6%; main business revenue reached 281.26 billion yuan, an increase of 19.1%; total profit reached 22.93 billion yuan, a sharp increase of 30.8% on a year-on-year basis. In terms of pesticide imports and exports, the amount of export increased by 31.0% and the export volume increased by 22.1%, which far outnumbered the output increase. What’s more, the export price showed a rising tendency; import price of pesticide products increased by 16.8%, and the import volume met a significant increase of 10.6 %; cumulative trade surplus in 2013 totaled 3.05 billion dollars, an increase of 34.7% on a year-on-year basis. The export volume of pesticide formulations has maintained the rapid growth this year since it exceeded that of the pesticide TC products in 2013, which further speeds up the building of the Chinese pesticide industry’s brand image in the international market.
In terms of the sale performance of the top 100 pesticide enterprises by sales in 2014 (based on the sale data in 2013), the threshold for pesticide enterprises to be one of the top 100 pesticide enterprises continues to rise, from 260 million yuan in 2013 to 300 million yuan in 2014, a rise of 40 million yuan, which reflects the fact that strength of the Chinese pesticide enterprises has been solidifying and the scale of China’s pesticide industry has been growing. With a remarkably rising threshold for measuring the top 100 pesticide enterprises by sales, the total sales of the top 100 pesticide enterprises in 2014 reached 97.92 billion yuan, an increase of 18.81 billion yuan compared with 2013’s total sales of 79.11 billion yuan. The total sales increased by 23.8% on a year-on-year basis, which has fully demonstrated the increasingly significant role played by large-scale enterprises in adjusting the economic and industrial structure, and the fact that the market has been gradually recovering and growing with the pesticide products being a rigid demand.

Table 1 Top 100 China Pesticide Enterprises (By sales)

In terms of the provincial location of the top 100 pesticide enterprises by sales in 2014, the pesticide industry presents a growing tendency to develop towards the central and western regions. The top 100 pesticide enterprises are located in 19 regions, including 17 provinces, 1 autonomous region (Inner Mongolia) and 1 municipality directly under the central authority (Chongqing), among which Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shandong provinces, as traditional strong pesticide provinces, still occupy the first three spots. There are a total of 61 enterprises which have made it to the top 100 pesticide enterprises by sales in these three provinces, a slight decrease compared with last year’s 64 enterprises. The total sales of these 61 enterprises reached 66.73 billion yuan, an increase of 22.4% compared with last year’s 54.52 billion yuan, accounting for 68.1% of the total revenues of the top 100 enterprises, a slight decrease compared with 2013’s 68.9%. A total of 26 enterprises have made it to the top 100 in the 11 provinces in the central and western regions, an addition of 2 enterprises compared with the 24 enterprises in 2013. The total sales reached 19.65 billion yuan with a sharp increase above the average, around 25% compared with 15.71 billion yuan in 2013. The total sales of these 24 enterprises accounted for 20.1% of the total of the top 100 enterprises in 2014, a slight increase of 0.2% compared with those of last year. The pesticide industry’s development tendency towards the central and western regions becomes increasingly noticeable.

Table 2 Regional Distribution of the Top 100 Pesticide Enterprises by Sales

Unprecedentedly, among the top 100 pesticide enterprises by sales there are 31 enterprises the sales of which have exceeded 1 billion yuan in 2014, while there were only 16 in 2012 and 24 in 2013; the total sales of enterprises the sales of which have exceeded 1 billion yuan reached 59.79 billion yuan in 2014, accounting for 61.1% of the total of the top 100 enterprises and far exceeding last year’s 51.3%. Among the top 100 enterprises, there are 5 enterprises the sales of which in 2014 have exceeded 3 billion yuan. The total sales of these 5 enterprises reached 16.66 billion yuan, accounting for 17.0% of the total of the top 100 enterprises, while there was only 1 enterprise the sales of which exceeded 3 billion yuan in 2013. According to the above data, the pesticide enterprises are developing with an intensified mode. The advantages of large-scale enterprises have become increasingly obvious, which are favorable to risk reduction and enhancement of the enterprises’ competitiveness in the international market.

Generally speaking, Chinese pesticide industry still stays in the rising cycle and it is expected that the output of our pesticide industry in 2014 will rise steadily with a slightly decreasing increase rate. There is still a long way to go for our pesticide industry. Faced with increasing cost, environmental pressure, weak innovative and creative ability, etc., the pesticide industry should accelerate its industrial adjustment as well as merger and reconstruction to realize the enterprises’ upgrading and transformation.