China has firmly established itself as the world's largest producer of pesticide technical materials, and many of the products manufactured at massive scale in the country have become essential inputs for agriculture across Latin America, particularly in large-scale crops such as soybeans, corn, wheat and cotton.

According to the China Pesticide Industry Watch 2026, several active ingredients produced in China reach production capacities of tens or even hundreds of thousands of tons, reinforcing the country's role as the backbone of the global crop protection supply chain. For Latin American agriculture, this means that a significant share of herbicides, insecticides and fungicides used in the region originates directly or indirectly from Chinese manufacturing plants.

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The giants of China's pesticide production

Among the pesticides with the largest production capacity in China are some of the most widely used crop protection products worldwide.

Key pesticides produced in China

These figures highlight China's enormous industrial scale in producing active ingredients used globally for weed, pest and disease control in modern agriculture.

Glyphosate and herbicides remain the backbone

Among all products, glyphosate remains the flagship pesticide of China's agrochemical industry, with production capacity exceeding 200,000 tons annually, making it one of the most critical herbicides for global agriculture.

Alongside glyphosate, several other herbicides produced at large scale include:

• Glufosinate-ammonium

• 2,4-D

• S-metolachlor

• Atrazine

These herbicides play a central role in large-scale no-till farming systems and modern weed management strategies, particularly in major agricultural regions such as South America.

Modern insecticides and fungicides gaining ground

Beyond traditional herbicides, the report also highlights the growing production of modern insecticides and fungicides in China.

Among the molecules expanding their production capacity are:

• Chlorantraniliprole, widely used to control lepidopteran pests

• Thiamethoxam, a key insecticide in seed treatment technologies

• Prothioconazole, a fungicide commonly used in cereals

• Tebuconazole, one of the most widely used fungicides in global agriculture

Several of these products now reach tens of thousands of tons in production capacity, reflecting China's expanding role in supplying advanced crop protection technologies.

Latin America: a strategic market

The impact of China's pesticide production scale is particularly evident in Latin America, where crop protection programs rely heavily on active ingredients manufactured in China.

Major agricultural economies such as:

• Brazil

• Argentina

• Paraguay

• Uruguay

• Colombia

use crop protection products that frequently contain Chinese-manufactured active ingredients, either in generic formulations or in products commercialized by multinational agrochemical companies.

The factory behind global crop protection

China's dominance in pesticide production is driven by a combination of structural advantages:

• large-scale chemical manufacturing capacity

• highly integrated industrial supply chains

• competitive production costs

• strong chemical engineering capabilities

These factors have positioned China as the industrial backbone of the global crop protection industry, supplying raw materials and active ingredients to manufacturers and distributors around the world.

A decisive factor for the future of agriculture

The scale of pesticide production in China means that any shift in its regulatory policies, industrial capacity or export dynamics can have immediate ripple effects across global agriculture. For Latin America-one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world-understanding this dynamic is increasingly important. Because in today's global farming system, many of the molecules protecting crops across the continent originate in chemical plants thousands of miles away in China.