Dr H V S Chauhan: Indofil Chemicals has entrenched itself in the fungicide market to such an extent that its employees are known as “the mancozeb people”

Indofil Chemicals has a unique position in the Indian marketplace. It is essentially a fungicide company in a market where fungicides account for less than 20% of the overall pie.

The company´s executive vice-president Dr H V S Chauhan views its positioning as a strength. In an age of ever-increasing customer segmentation and niche marketing, he feels that the company has entrenched itself in the fungicide market to such an extent that its employees are known as “the mancozeb people”.

Isn´t this a risky proposition, considering the fact that globally, mancozeb, an ethylene bisdithiocarbamate (EBDC) fungicide, is on the decline? “EBDCs have been around for many decades, and mancozeb, as a product, has reached its maturity at the global level,” concedes Dr Chauhan. But at the same time, he emphasises that as a broad-spectrum, contact fungicide, mancozeb is an ideal partner for mixing with other significant fungicides. “There are many fungicides, such as metalaxyl, carbendazim and cymoxanil, that are being marketed as a mixture with mancozeb,” he avers. “So mancozeb may not be in a growth mode as a stand-alone product, but it still has a lot of growth as a mixture,” he maintains. He should know – with a PhD in agronomy, he has been mainly a research and development person before moving into sales and marketing.

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Dr Chauhan feels that mancozeb has another advantage – there have never been any reports of resistance to the active ingredient. He is not blind to its drawbacks - the product needs to be used in large quantities. Nevertheless, he feels that the low level of fungicide usage in India and the entire Asia/ Pacific region is an opportunity. Mancozeb is in the growth mode in these areas. He cites the example of India where he estimates that the use of mancozeb has gone up by almost 1,500 tonnes over the last year.

He estimates the current usage of mancozeb in India (stand-alone and as a part of mixtures) to be in the range of around 10,000 tonnes. Indofil´s sales account for around 45% of this market. It sells around 2,000 tonnes to other players within the market. There are three other players producing mancozeb: United Phosphorus, Sabero Organics and Hindustan Insecticides.

Dr Chauhan estimates the global consumption to be in the range of 100,000-110,000 tonnes, with Dow AgroSciences leading the market. United Phosphorus, with its acquisition of Cerexagri, comes in at second position. Indofil stands third on the global scale.

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