Brazil: 4,216 Generic Pesticide Registrations Approved Since 2006
Guest Author: Mr. Flavio Hirata, partner at AllierBrasil, agronomist from Esalq/USP, MBA, and expert in pesticide registration.
15 April 2025, Brazil: The implementation of the Pesticide Equivalency Legislation in the early 2000s was much celebrated by the agribusiness community, since it made possible for more generic product companies to enter the market, with more competitive prices.
Since then, the Ministry of Agriculture has approved 4,216 registrations of generic products, out of which 2,255 (53.49%) are Technical Products and 1,961 (46.51%) are Formulated Products.
Approved Generic Pesticide* Registrations (2006 to 2024)
| Generic Pesticides (2006 – 2024) | |||
| # | Company | Approved Registrations | % |
| 1 | AllierBrasil | 304 | 7.21 |
| 2 | Nortox | 293 | 6.95 |
| 3 | Adama | 237 | 5.62 |
| 4 | Rainbow | 218 | 5.17 |
| 5 | CropChem | 175 | 4.15 |
| Demais | 2,989 | 70.90 | |
| Total | 4,216 | ||
Few companies, however, account for the majority of registration approvals. Based on this data, it can be said that there is a direct relationship between the number of approved registrations and the company’s revenues.
The company with the most approved generic registrations, AllierBrasil (304), as a pesticide registration consulting firm, has the revenue from product sales credited to its customers.
The other companies operate directly in the market through import and distribution. Nortox (293 registrations) is the largest national company in terms of revenue, and has a technical product synthesis factory and formulation plants. Next, two foreign companies stand out: Adama (237), which is now part of the Syngenta Group, has a technical product manufacturing unit and formulation plants in Brazil, and Rainbow (218 registrations), which is the Chinese company with the largest revenue in the country. Finally, CropChem (175), a local company in the market for over 20 years.
The number of companies, however, is much greater. In order to expand their portfolios and be able to offer a more complete line to their customers, companies without a range of product registrations use “import authorization”, which allows to import products directly from the foreign factories, using third-party registrations. This practice includes not only distributors, but also dealers, cooperatives and end users. On the other hand, companies that hold registrations, but do not have a wide distribution or credit lines, offer their registrations so that third parties can import and distribute.
All of this reinforces the importance of pesticide registration, which is the key to market access in Brazil, and in most countries. Of the total of 6,484 registrations approved since the year 2000, the number surpassed 500 registrations/year in 2021, reaching more than 650 in 2022 and 2024. In 5 years (2020 – 2024), 2,925 registrations were approved, 45.11% of the total. Finally, 2024 was the record for pesticide registration approvals in Brazil, with 663 registration approvals, 16.3% more than in the previous year.
Approved Registrations (2020-2024)
| TYPE OF REGISTRATION | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
| Technical Product | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Technical Product Based on New Active Ingredient | 5 | 7 | 8 | 11 | 3 |
| Equivalent Technical Product | 162 | 182 | 271 | 179 | 195 |
| Pre-Mixture | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Formulated Product | 70 | 60 | 34 | 40 | 19 |
| Formulated Product Based on New Active Ingredient | 9 | 12 | 35 | 20 | 12 |
| Formulated Product Based on Equivalent Technical Product | 147 | 207 | 168 | 215 | 327 |
| Low Risk Formulated Product (Bio*) | 57 | 41 | 57 | 55 | 52 |
| Low Risk Formulated Product Approved for Organic Agriculture (Bio/Org*) | 38 | 51 | 79 | 35 | 54 |
| Total | 493 | 562 | 652 | 555 | 663 |
Despite the records, only a few companies concentrate the majority of approvals. In 2024, 10 companies were responsible for approving 41.77% of the total. Highlights include AllierBrasil, Nortox, Rainbow, Adama and Sumitomo, which together approved 174 registrations, or 26.24% of the total.
10 companies approved 41.77% of pesticide registrations in 2024
Comparing the 2024 approvals with the approvals from 2006 to 2024, the same four companies were the ones that approved the most in both periods. Considering approved registration is the result of a long and expensive process for market access, it can be said these companies continue to invest over the years to maintain and increase market share, competitiveness and business longevity.
The increase in the number of registration approvals in recent years has been partly the result of lawsuits to expedite the completion of evaluations, with 30% to 35% of generic formulated product approvals occurring as a result of such lawsuits. This alarming number is prompting more lawsuits to ensure that ongoing registration processes do not lag behind the approvals of competing products, thus creating a vicious circle.
The main factor behind the increase in registration approvals, however, was the specific actions, either individually or jointly, by the ministries involved in pesticide registration. The results of the evaluations of equivalent technical products (generics) promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture can already be seen. The Ministry has recently hired 15 technicians to its team, thus reducing the waiting time for evaluation by more than a year. Some new standards were successfully implemented to simplify procedures and reduce bureaucracy, without compromising the rigor of technical evaluations.
In this context, there is great expectation regarding new procedures, especially those related to Law No. 14785, known as the New Pesticides Law. This establishes shorter deadlines for completing evaluations, canceling the registration of products that are not being commercialized, risk assessment, heavy fines, etc. Its regulations, which had to be implemented within 12 months after publication on December 27th, 2023, are expected to come in the following months.
Also Read: CABI and CIRAD Join Forces To Strengthen Sustainable Agriculture In Southeast Asia
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