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Defining the path forward in Home and Garden
The value of the EU plant protection market in Home and Garden reached
350M€ at end user level (anti-slugs included). Of that, herbicides represent
roughly 50%. France remains a key country as its herbicide market is worth
around 70M€ with only ‘natural’ products registered. It is a market in which
Beloukha
®
Garden, Belchim’s herbicide based on pelargonic acid, fits well. In
this country, it maintains a high market share (36%) with the ultraconcentrated
formulation among the other ‘natural’ concentrates and Ready-to-Use
products. 2021 was a good year for this market probably largely because,
due to lockdown effect, people travelled less and spent more money in their
garden.
The way forward in Europe is clear: the focus should be on products with
favourable toxicological and ecotoxicological profiles and preferably on
biorationals. It is clear from the above figures that herbicide represents the
largest part and that Belchim should focus on that, still investing time in
developing a new generation of ‘nonanoic acid’ formulations, but also looking
for natural weedkillers with residual or systemic activity. For insecticides and
fungicides, ‘polyvalent products’ with a broad spectrum must be developed, as
an amateur gardener generally has no deep technical knowledge and will only
purchase a limited number of products for her or his garden.
Amenity, Home & Garden, Industrial & Railway:
Growht opportunities
Laurent Darthout, Marketing Manager AHGIR
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