The crop protection products category had a really good year during the 2023 growing season. With the industry significantly recovered from the supply chain headaches of 2021 and 2022, overall revenues topped at almost $16 billion. It seemed as if the category was poised for similar positive results during 2024.

“If you look back two to three years, the world was suffering from many historic events, such as COVID,” David Elser, Region Head, North America at UPL NA, Inc., told CropLife® magazine back during the 2024 Commodity Classic show in March. “This caused substantial supply chain disruptions. This made everyone in agriculture — from growers to suppliers to ag retailers — to think about buying everything they needed to do business 15 to 18 months in advance, rather than just a few weeks forward.”

But this continued category growth didn’t happen, unfortunately. According to the 2024 CropLife 100 survey, the nation’s top ag retailers experienced a 2.6% revenue decline during this calendar year with sales topping out at $15.3 billion. According to most industry watchers, the very phenomenon Elser described — buying more products in advance, “just in case” — meant ag retailers and their grower-customers were well stocked on crop protection products for the current growing season.

However, all of the news for the crop protection products category wasn’t bad in 2024. Because the category didn’t decline as rapidly as other crop inputs/services categories among ag retailers, the overall market share did improve. For 2024, crop protection products now hold a 36% market share among CropLife 100 ag retailers compared with other crop inputs such as fertilizer and seed. This represented a 2% improvement from the 34% market share the category held according to the 2023 CropLife 100 survey.

Slower Growth in Herbicides, Fungicides

Among the four individual segments that make up the crop protection products category, all recorded higher sales volumes than flat or down revenues. However, compared with the percentages recorded for these segments during 2023 — when “up sales” percentages ranged between 57% and 75% — this year’s numbers were significantly lower.

For example, consider herbicides. In the 2023 CropLife 100 survey, 65% of respondents said their sales in this segment grew between 1% and more than 5%. In 2024, only 44% of CropLife 100 ag retailers reported these kinds of sales increases for their operations. An almost similar percentage — 41% — said their herbicide revenues in 2024 declined between 1% and more than 5%. The remaining 15% had flat sales in herbicides for the year.

Perhaps a drop in herbicide resistant weeds pressures also kept this segment’s numbers from looking better in 2024. Based upon data from the 2024 CropLife 100 survey, 77% of respondents described herbicide-resistant weeds as a “major problem” in their areas. This was a decline of 2% from the findings in the 2023 CropLife 100 survey, however.

It was a similar story for another crop protection products segment, fungicides. In 2023, 57% of CropLife 100 ag retailers said their sales in this segment grew between 1% and more than 5%. But according to the 2024 CropLife 100 survey, this percentage was only 45% for this year’s growing season. Instead, 22% of respondents said their fungicides revenues were flat for 2024 and 33% reported sales declines between 1% and more than 5%.

Insecticides, Biologicals Lead the Way

On the plus side, the other two crop protection products segments did perform better for 2024. For instance, in insecticides, slightly more than half of the nation’s top ag retailers — 51% — indicated that their revenues in this segment improved between 1% and more than 5% for the year. Twenty-six percent of survey respondents said their insecticide sales for this year were the same as during the 2023 growing season. The remaining 23% recorded sales declines of between 1% and more than 5% for their insecticide offerings in 2024.

The “revenue winner trophy” for 2024 among the crop protection product segments belonged to the newest one — biologicals. According to the 2024 CropLife 100 survey, 63% of the nation’s top ag retailers saw sales increases between 1% and more than 5% for their biological offerings for grower-customers. Twenty-seven percent said their biologicals revenues for the year were flat compared with 2023. Significantly, only 10% of respondents said their biologicals sales actually declined between 1% and more than 5% for the year.