Chinese Government Supports the Upgrade of Its Agrochem Industry

China is a big manufacturer and exporter of agrochemicals; however, most products are active ingredients. The country's agrochem industry lacks capability in the development of new products and new formulations as well as international marketing. Part of its RMB 4 trillion rescue package released after the US subprime mortgage crisis involved the country will be invested in agrochemical industry. The government will not simply give the money to the industry, says Yanhai Chen, a senior official from China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in the 9th National Agrochemical Symposium held on September 26th. The government will elevate the benchmark for new comers in agrochem industry, encourage the development of highly efficient and environment-friendly products, prohibit the construction of new capacity in fields already troubled by overcapacity, and help inferior players withdraw from the industry. It's said that companies must locate their new manufacturing units in industry parks where waste will be handled by the public facility collectively. Chinese government raised the export tariff rebate on dicofol and chlorfenethol from 5% to 9%, that of carbofuran from 9% to 13%. The rate on bisultap and some plant growth regulators is also elevated. However, the potential of further raising the rate is low, according to Yanqiu Zhang, the head of the Pesticide Inspection Institute under China's Ministry of Agriculture. Chinese government does not want to encourage the export of products whose production consumes lots of energy and emits heavily to the environment.