A new champion of herbicides for rice paddies has emerged.

In recent years, although the global rice paddy herbicide market has experienced fluctuations, it has generally shown a stable trend. The market distribution of rice paddy herbicides has seen shifts, with Japan's market position declining while China's market position has significantly risen. The top ten products in the rice paddy herbicide category have remained unchanged, but their rankings have shifted. Notably, the dominant position of pyrazosulfuron has been challenged, replaced by cyhalofop-butyl.
Like other market sectors, the launch of new products in the rice paddy herbicide category has been weak. In 2015, Bayer's flufenacet was launched, which was the only change in new product development compared to 2014.
1 Global Rice Paddy Herbicide Market
In 2015, global sales of rice paddy herbicides amounted to $1.928 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 7.7%; the compound annual growth rate from 2010 to 2015 was -0.4%. In recent years, the global rice paddy herbicide market has shown a stable trend.
Japan remains the largest country for rice paddy herbicides, holding 27.8% of the global market, but this represents a decline of 2.8 percentage points from the previous year; China ranks second with a market share of 21.1%, an increase of 2.4 percentage points from the previous year. Additionally, the market share of rice paddy herbicides in the United States has increased compared to the previous year, making it tied with Brazil for third place in the world. The decline in Japan's rice paddy herbicide market share has largely been compensated by China, the United States, and India.
In 2015, the top ten rice paddy herbicides globally were: cyhalofop-butyl, pyrazosulfuron, butachlor, propanil, pyraclonil, bispyribac, quinclorac, bensulfuron, bentazone, and propanil. Among them, cyhalofop-butyl surpassed pyrazosulfuron to become the new champion in the global rice paddy herbicide market; the market positions of butachlor, pyraclonil, and quinclorac have also improved.
In 2015, the top ten markets for rice paddy herbicides globally included: Japan, China, Brazil, the United States, India, Vietnam, Thailand, Italy, South Korea, and Indonesia. There was no change compared to 2014.
2 Major Rice Paddy Herbicides Worldwide
In the control of monocotyledonous weeds in rice paddies, pre-planting herbicides mainly include molinate; pre-emergence herbicides mainly include butachlor; post-emergence herbicides mainly include anilofos, cyhalofop-butyl, fentrazamide, and bromobutide; herbicides that can be used both pre- and post-emergence mainly include mefenacet, pyriminobac, quinclorac, pyrimisulfan, cafenstrole, and oxaziclomefone.
In herbicides that control both monocotyledonous and broadleaf weeds in rice paddies, clomazone can be used for both pre-planting and pre-emergence; herbicides that can be used both pre- and post-emergence mainly include bensulfuron, pyrazosulfuron, pyraclonil, pyrazosulfuron, benzobicyclon, and imazapic; pre-emergence herbicides mainly include oxadiazon, pyrazolynate, thiobencarb, and pentoxazone; post-emergence herbicides mainly include propyrisulfuron, pretilachlor, bispyribac, propanil, and cyclosulfamuron; herbicides that can be used pre-planting, pre-emergence, and post-emergence mainly include imazethapyr, pendimethalin, and oxyfluorfen.
In broadleaf weed control agents for rice paddies, there are pre- and post-emergence herbicides such as imazosulfuron and halosulfuron; post-emergence herbicides include metsulfuron, bentazone, azimsulfuron, and 2,4-D.
3 Recently Launched and Developing Rice Paddy Herbicides
Between 2009 and 2015, a total of seven new rice paddy herbicides were launched globally, namely: propanil, pyrimisulfan, pyraclonil, pyrazosulfuron, ipfencarbazone, fenoxasulfone, and flufenacet; there are also five new products under development, which are: chlorfenapyr, fenquinotrione, lancotrione-sodium, cyclopyrimorate, and F9600.