According
to General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China and business
intelligence firm CCM, the export volume of acephate in China decreased in
April, 2019. However, the export price of acephate experienced a double-digit
growth.
As it is demonstrated
in the analysis data of import and export from Guangzhou CCM Information
Science & Technology Co., Ltd. (CCM), 321 tonnes of acephate TC were
exported from China in April, 2019. A dramatic decline by 78.82% was obviously
seen this year, compared with China’s export volume of acephate TC in the same
month last year. Similarly, the export volume of acephate formulation also
dropped sharply by 85.10% YoY, attributed to the fact that only 252 tonnes of acephate
formulation were exported in April this year.
Generally
speaking, there has been a significant decrease in the export volume of
acephate TC and formulation by 82.13% YoY. The decrease is mostly due to the simultaneous
dropping volume of both chemicals. On the contrary, the average export price of
acephate TC and formulation went up totally by 8.75% YoY, respectively with acephate
TC ascending by 11.64% and acephate formulation rising by 6.79%.
China restricts the utilization of acephate from
2017 by strict measures
Belonging
to an oral insecticide, acephate, which is slow-acting, is usually used to
protect crops from chewing and sucking pests and pest mites. The application of
acephate is widely involved in vegetables, tea bushes, tobacco, fruit trees,
cotton, rice, wheat and rapeseeds. Due to its characteristics of low toxicity
and high efficiency, acephate emerged as an alternative to methamidophos, a highly
toxic pesticide that has been out of markets. However, acephate creats degradation
of metabolism while being used. What’s worse, humans and animals can be poisoned
by acephate if it is kept and used in a wrong way.
In 2017, an
announcement about the restriction of acephate and four other pesticides was
made by the Department of Plantation Management, Chinese Ministry of
Agriculture. After that, strict administrative measures were taken right away.
It was reported that since August 1, 2017, applications for pesticide
registration have been no longer valid in terms of acephate, carbosulfan and dimethoate
in China. From the same date on, acephate, carbosulfan and dimethoate were
banned being utilized in vegetables, fruits, tea bushes, fungus and herbs.
The
pesticides involved in the restriction have been suffering from less demand in
China. According to the statistics from China Pesticide Industrial Association,
the market size of those pesticides have been shrunk to RMB 500 million until
2015, among which the terminal market size of acephate reached about RMB 210
million in China.
Europe, Brazil and New Zealand already executed
restriction of acephate many years ago
The
European Commission paid great attention to the impact that acephate exerted on
human health and non-target organisms, especially birds and aquatic organisms.
Hence, the commission approved that acephate was excluded from the EU Pesticide
Registration Act.
In 2009,
the Supervisory Office for sanitation in Brazil tried to ban using acephate in
15 kinds of crop, including potatoes, tangerines, chrysanthemums, peppers and
tomatoes, after a toxicologist highly suggested that acephate should be stopped
in the country. Apart from that, the office also suggested restricting the
utilization of acephate in households and private gardens, so that the human
intake of this chemical could be reduced from 0.03 mg/kg to 0.000 8 mg/kg per
day.
In 2011,
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of New Zealand announced to expand
inspection of pesticides. According to the EPA, acephate would be banned being
used in private family gardens due to the fact that residents may fail to use
acephate in a safe way because of their lack of professional equipment and
relevant knowledge.
For more
information about China’s pesticides market, please check our monthly Insecticides
China News.