“…the market faced two challenging years, with price increases and product shortage…”
Marco Faria is the commercial director at FMC Corporation, an agronomist from the State University of São Paulo, with an MBA in business management from Dom Cabral Foundation.
Marco Faria, commercial director at FMC
AgriBrasilis – How is the agrochemical market behaving in Brazil?
Marco Faria – Globally, the market faced two challenging years, with price increases and product shortages. Now, we are in an adjustment phase. Gradually, the market will settle down and this will be reflected throughout the chain.
The market is more concerned with sustainability and has been changing and adding new technologies for this purpose. Moreover, the consolidation of our industry in the biologicals market is a reality.
FMC has contributed to this trend over the past few years. In 2023, we will launch five products, of which three are biological. We are pioneers in this segment, with great capacity for discovering and developing sustainable technology for crop protection.
AgriBrasilis – How is the drop in prices of imported pesticide products impacting the market? What has been China’s role in this context?
Marco Faria – In fact, prices are returning to their “real” values before the Covid-19 pandemic. Products that had a significant price increase are the most affected, and are returning to normal levels. Those that maintained their prices during that time tend to remain stable.
China is responsible for directing these prices, according to the supply and demand of each solution.
AgriBrasilis – What are the current concerns of the players in this market?
Marco Faria – Right now, the market’s biggest concern are the commodity prices. The risks inherent to agriculture are always matters that farmers and pesticide companies observe at every season. Crops are open-air industries and we need to monitor and pay attention to climate, soil, rainfall, pests and diseases.
To minimize challenges, our focus is always on productivity, that is how we can make a difference. We are committed to increasingly assertive innovative solutions for management, and new technologies, such as Arc™ farm intelligence, a predictive reality tool based on real-time data, that helps farmers to predict the amount of pests in their farms, making it possible to apply products at the most appropriate time.
AgriBrasilis – What are the trends in technologies and product formulations?
Marco Faria – The market is eager for technology, that is the strong point of Brazilian agriculture. Companies in the pesticide market have a high investment in innovation and product differentiation to offer the most modern products to farmers.
FMC, for example, has the Genesis soybean program, composed of three biological products for application in the furrow or in seed treatment focused on controlling targets such as nematodes and fungi.
FMC has always been focused on technology and innovation, proof of which is the company’s Innovation Center, located in the city of Paulínia, State of São Paulo. In 2023, among the products launched, we have the revolutionary insecticide Premio® Star, that controls caterpillars and Heteroptera bugs in soybeans, in addition to offering protection for 50 biological targets, in more than 50 crops.
Our goal is to optimize the products so that they have more effect and generate more productivity for the farmer.
AgriBrasilis – What is FMC’s market share and in which areas does the company stand out?
Marco Faria – FMC has just released the results for the 1Q of 2023. The company’s worldwide revenue reached US$ 1.34 billion in the 1Q, being stable in relation to the same period of 2022 and growing 4% organically.
Nationally, FMC is a leader in cotton and sugarcane. We are among the main suppliers of solutions for coffee, fruit and vegetables, tobacco, irrigated rice and increasingly for soybean and corn. For these last two crops, we are investing more and more in technology, confident that we will grow with our own solutions.
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