Title: Tracing China’s agrochemical complex

Chinese firms, both private and state-owned, have transformed the global agrochemical complex. China dominates exports of pesticides (particularly herbicides) and various kinds of nitrogen- and phosphorous-based fertilisers. Australia for its part imported 159,100 tonnes of Chinese herbicide in 2020.

And yet the precise nature of this chemical transformation is poorly understood: where are Chinese agrochemicals made and by whom; in what ways is domestic production changing; which actors are active in the export market; and what is flowing where?

In this article, the researchers have begun fleshing out some of the detail of China’s massive agrochemical complex and its internal dynamics by examining key actors and flows in China’s agrochemical export industry.

The analysis is framed by insights drawn from the Global China literature and from pesticide studies. The researchers find two distinct industries, both of which are in flux. Domestic environmental regulations and industry upgrading are reconfiguring the landscape for mining and chemical production, resulting in a scaling back of pesticide and fertiliser production, while mergers and acquisitions are concentrating production and export capacity in particular firms.

Export flows are nonetheless growing in a generally bullish export environment. Many pesticides banned for being too dangerous and polluting in China, such as paraquat and diqua, are being purchased by Australian farmers where health and environmental regulations are less stringent.

The research finds concealed in the generic categories ‘pesticide’ and ‘fertiliser’ the fact that different products go to different destinations and do so in patterns that complicate North-South categories. The analysis highlights the need for new commodity geographies of Chinese-made agrochemicals that can account for production, circulation, and use, especially with regards the Australian market which is one of the key consumer nations of synthetic agrochemicals.

Yue Zhao &Sarah Rogers (2024). Tracing China’s agrochemical complex, World Development, Volume 181.

Full-text available here.





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Article: WeedsNews7123 (permalink)
Categories: :WeedsNews:research alert, :WeedsNews:trade, :WeedsNews:herbicides, :WeedsNews:economics, :WeedsNews:international policy, :WeedsNews:policy
Date: 20 July 2025; 6:25:16 pm Australian Eastern Standard Time

Author Name: David Low
Author ID: adminDavid