Industry Analysis & Industry Trends
The Global Fertilizers and Agricultural Chemicals Manufacturing industry is involved in the production of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and other agricultural chemicals. As such, it plays an essential role in ensuring that the world's agricultural production systems are both economically efficient in the short term and sustainable in the long term. Indeed, it is believed that the expansion of the world's population to its current level has only occurred as a result of the intensification of agriculture associated with the use of agricultural chemicals.
Over much of the past decade, the industry enjoyed moderate growth led by the three main growth drivers of feed, food and biofuels... read more
Starting a New Business
There exist a number of substantial barriers to entry into the Global Fertilizer and Agricultural Chemicals Manufacturing Industry, a number of which are outlined below:
The initial capital outlays required to enter this industry can be quite significant. In the case of the fertilizer product segment, operators require in excess of $500 million to construct a competitive fertilizer plant. For example nitrogen plants capable of producing 1 million metric tons of nitrogen products cost $1.5 to $2 billion and take three plus years to build while phosphate plants can cost in excess of $2 billion and take 3 to 4 years to build.
Significant R&D requirements pose another barrier within the pesticide product segment... read more