Argentine agrochemical industries asked the government of that country to restrict import licenses for agricultural pesticides – especially those from China. Currently, one in every four liters of these inputs are formulated outside Argentina. Furthermore, local manufacturers also require equalization of health control standards between national and foreign products.
The neighboring country currently has seven active ingredient production industries and more than 120 final product formulation plants, from small companies to large industries. Entity that represents the sector, the Argentine Chamber of Fertilizers and Agrochemicals Industry (Ciafa) states that it has already made several requests to the Macri administration, but without any positive results so far.
Local manufacturers complain that imports of phytosanitary products grew by 44% in volume between 2011 and 2014, reaching a record 286 million kilograms/liters. Even though in 2015 this number fell to 178 million, it is estimated that this year 2016 it could increase again by 30%, due to the removal of barriers to imports.
The share of imported agrochemicals in Argentina fluctuates around 25% of the market, on average. According to the newspaper Clarín, Ciafa estimates that, “as a result of macroeconomic changes, the flow of phytosanitary products from China will increase considerably, reaching the critical point of putting the very existence of the Argentine industry at risk”.
The entity also complains that, while local products are subject to intense controls, “ready-to-use” agrochemicals that arrive from abroad do not face any type of health regulation. They even mention that a type of economic “dumping” occurs.
According to Ciafa, Chinese products enter the Argentine market at very low prices, with which local industries cannot compete because they do not have tax and export incentives like their Asian counterparts. Furthermore, they remember that production costs are much higher in Argentina – mainly with labor and energy.
