2006-2007 Pesticide Market Estimates: Usage

3.1  World and U.S. Pesticide Amount Used

World pesticide amount used was approximately 5.2 billion pounds in both 2006 and 2007 (see Table 3.1). Herbicides accounted for the largest portion of total use, followed by other pesticides, insecticides, and fungicides. Total world pesticide amount used increased in 2007. U.S. pesticide amount used in both 2006 and 2007 exceeded 1.1 billion pounds, in proportions similar to those of world pesticide use, with herbicides and other pesticides representing a larger portion of total U.S. pesticide use (see Figure 3.1). U.S. pesticide amount used accounted for 22% of total world pesticide amount used, 25% of world herbicide amount used, 10% of world insecticide amount used, 14% of world fungicide amount used, and more than 25% of other pesticide amount used in both years. The Agency based its estimates of world and U.S. pesticide amount used on the estimated pesticide amount used and estimated changes in pesticide amount used from public and proprietary EPA databases. See Section 5.2 for historical data on U.S. pesticide amount used from 1988 to 2007. Data in this section were developed to compare world with U.S. pesticide use. For a more detailed look at U.S. pesticide use and a further breakout of the “other” pesticide category, see Table 3.3, Table 3.4, and Tables 3.11 through 3.13.

3.2  Pesticide Supply in the U.S.: Producer Level

Table 3.2 summarizes the 2006 and 2007 average U.S. distribution of pesticides at the producer level, including the amount of production, imports, exports, and supply (total and net). The pesticide amount related to U.S. pesticide production and consumption comprised 1.2 billion pounds of domestic production, 0.2 billion pounds of imports, 0.3 billion pounds of exports, and 1.1 billion pounds of net supply.

3.3  Pesticide Amount Used in the U.S.: Total

Total pesticide amount used in the United States was approximately 5.1 billion pounds in both 2006 and 2007 (see Table 3.3). These estimates include conventional pesticides, other chemicals used as pesticides, wood preservatives, specialty biocides, and chlorine/hypochlorites. With more than 2.6 billion pounds used, the amount of chlorine/hypochlorites used was greater than for all other pesticide groups combined (see Figure 3.2). The estimates of use by group rely on the estimated amount used and changes in estimated amount used by pesticide group derived from public and proprietary EPA databases. A discussion of the amount used of each pesticide group in 2006 and 2007 appears in subsequent sections (see footnotes to Table 3.3 for locations).