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AGROCHEMICAL INDUSTRY
Prices
Almost 100% of the active ingredients required to manufacture local agricultural chemicals are im-
ported to South Africa. Therefore, the international prices and exchange rate are monitored as these
play an important role in domestic price trends.
Table 4
shows the international prices of the active ingredients of five herbicides used in maize. The
prices are in both dollar terms and in rand terms. Except for trifluralin, all international herbicide price
trends show increases year-on-year. From September 2021 to September 2022, international prices
of glyphosate increased by 7,3%, acetochlor by 31,1% and atrazine by 33,5%, whereas metolachlor
increased by 50,8%. In the same period under review, the rand/dollar exchange rate weakened by
20,3% and the impact of the depreciation can be seen when international dollar prices are converted
to rands, which means the trends increase even more in rand terms than in dollar terms.
Table 5
(on page 80) indicates international insecticide prices, which are also used in maize pro-
duction (dollar and rand terms). Generally, international insecticide prices were mixed, with some
active ingredients showing a moderate increase, whereas the prices of other insecticides decreased.
In dollar terms, imidacloprid and deltamethrin decreased by 3% and 16,3% respectively, whereas
lambda-cyhalothrin and carbofuran increased by 0,5% and 2,8% respectively. Due to the weakening
of the rand, international prices showed bigger increases in rand terms.
TABLE 4
INTERNATIONAL HERBICIDE PRICES
International herbicide prices – year to year change
(September 2021 - September 2022)
SEP 2020
USD/t
SEP 2021
USD/t
% CHANGE
Glyphosate (95%)
8 653
9 288
+7,3
Acetochlor (92%)
4 374
5 736
+31,1
Atrazine (97%)
3 790
5 061
+33,5
Metolachlor (97%)
4 975
7 502
+50,8
Trifluralin (95%)
6 835
5 334
-22,0
International herbicide prices – year to year change
SEP 2020
R/t
SEP 2021
R/t
% CHANGE
Glyphosate (95%)
126 248
162 997
29,1
Acetochlor (92%)
63 813
100 659
57,7
Atrazine (97%)
55 291
88 819
60,6
Metolachlor (97%)
72 587
131 658
81,4
Trifluralin (95%)
99 726
93 604
-6,1
INPUT AND PRODUCTION OVERVIEW