From 2020 to 2024, 49 new active ingredients of pesticides were registered in China, with a synchronization rate exceeding 71% between the registration of the parent compound and its formulated products.

In recent years, new agrochemicals have increasingly become the guiding principle for pesticide registration in China, with highly efficient, low-toxicity, and environmentally friendly active ingredients, technical-grade products, formulations, and biopesticides emerging as the key directions for their development.

Over the past five years, China has registered a total of 45 new pesticides, encompassing 49 active ingredients and 85 formulated products. Among these, 84—representing 98.8%—are low- or slightly toxic; environmentally friendly formulations such as suspension concentrates, wettable powders, soluble liquids, and dispersible oil suspensions hold a clear advantage. Although the number of registered herbicides remains relatively modest at 16, all newly registered chemical herbicides in 2024 have already been assigned International Organization for Standardization (ISO) common names. Additionally, 57 new biopesticide products have been registered, accounting for 67.1% of the total, and they are poised to capture an increasingly significant market share.

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Status of Newly Registered Pesticide Products in China Over the Past Five Years

From 2020 to 2024, China approved the registration of a total of 45 new pesticides, 49 new active ingredients, and 85 new pesticide products. Among these, 35 active ingredients were registered simultaneously as both technical-grade materials or parent compounds and formulated products. Specifically, six registrations were granted in 2020, 21 in 2021 (covering 23 active ingredients), no registrations in 2022, 10 in 2023, and eight in 2024 (covering 10 active ingredients) (Table 1). Looking ahead to 2025, six new pesticides have already been registered, including one plant‑derived pesticide and five microbial pesticides. On April 2, 2025, four additional new pesticides were publicly announced—comprising one biochemical pesticide and three microbial pesticides—and it is anticipated that the number of new pesticide registrations this year will exceed ten.

Table 1: List of New Pesticides and Active Ingredients, Along with the Number of Products, Over the Past Five Years

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Analysis of the Characteristics of Newly Registered Pesticide Products in the Past Five Years

2.1 New pesticide products are generally low-toxicity or slightly toxic.

From 2020 to 2024, among the 85 newly registered pesticide products in China, 27 were classified as slightly toxic, accounting for 31.8% of the total; 57 were low‑toxicity, representing 67.1%; and 1 was moderately toxic, making up 1.2%. Thus, the toxicity profile of new Chinese pesticides is predominantly low or slightly toxic (Table 2). With the growing number of microbial pesticides, the share of slightly toxic products is also expected to rise. Currently, slightly and low‑toxicity products account for 47.4% of all registered formulations, and this proportion is likely to increase further as registration procedures advance. As the number of newly registered pesticides continues to grow, highly effective, low‑risk products are gradually replacing high‑risk alternatives, thereby contributing to the ongoing optimization of China’s pesticide portfolio.

Table 2: Statistical Table of Toxicity Classes for New Pesticide Products, 2020–2024

2.2 Environmentally friendly formulations dominate

Among the formulation types registered for new pesticides over the past five years, suspension concentrates accounted for 18 entries—the largest share, or 36.7% of all new formulation types—followed by wettable powders and soluble concentrates, each representing 12.2%. Dispersible oil‑in‑water suspensions, which have seen rapid recent development, made up 10.2%, primarily for herbicides and microbial pesticides. Evaporative cores and water‑dispersible granules each accounted for 10.2% and 8.2%, respectively (Table 3). For microbial pesticides formulated as water‑dispersible granules, selecting appropriate carriers and processing methods is essential to avoid adverse effects on active ingredients such as microbial strains and fermentation products, while also ensuring benefits in application methods, disintegration and dispersion performance, stability, shelf life, stress tolerance, manufacturing processes, and transportation. By contrast, emulsifiable concentrates and dry powder formulations each had only one product during this period, indicating that traditional formulation types hold a limited share among new pesticide offerings.

Table 3: Data Table of Formulations for New Pesticide Products, 2020–2024

2.3 Fewer herbicide products

Recently, the registration of new microbial pesticides for insecticidal and fungicidal applications has advanced rapidly, whereas progress in the herbicide sector has been slower. Over a five-year period, 28 new insecticide products, 30 fungicides, and 16 herbicides were registered (Table 4). Although numerous microbial strains with weed‑suppressive biocontrol activity have been identified worldwide, the number of commercially produced and officially registered products remains limited—particularly in 2024, when three chemical herbicides—pyrazquifenthoate, florasulam, and fluroxypyr—each received an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) common name. Over the past two decades, dozens of pesticides have successively obtained ISO common names, and with the continuous emergence of new pesticide candidates, additional compounds are added to this list annually. It is hoped that companies that have already secured ISO common names will proactively notify the pesticide registration authorities and the drafting body of the national standard for “Chinese Common Names of Pesticides,” so that timely updates can be incorporated.

Table 4: Statistics on Pesticide Categories of New Pesticide Products, 2020–2024

From the perspective of registrants, three universities currently hold pesticide registration certificates in their own names, signaling that non‑corporate entities have entered the arena of new‑pesticide research and application.

2.4 Biopesticides account for the majority of new pesticides.

From 2020 to 2024, 28 new chemical pesticide products were registered, accounting for 32.9% of all new pesticides; 57 biopesticides were registered, representing 67.1%, of which 37 were microbial pesticides, or 64.9% of the total biopesticide category, while biochemical pesticides numbered 16, or 28.1%, and plant‑derived pesticides totaled only 4, or 7%. This indicates that microbial pesticides are advancing most rapidly, with research and production efforts steadily accelerating—a notable highlight in China’s pesticide development trajectory. Among newly registered pesticides, the number of biopesticides has surpassed that of chemical pesticides, reflecting relatively more lenient registration requirements compared to other categories. Plant‑derived pesticides ranked last in terms of the number of registered products (Table 5).

Table 5: Classification of Sources for New Pesticide Products, 2020–2024

With the advancement of species‑classification techniques and the progress of biological taxonomy, human capabilities in species identification and classification have been steadily improving.

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Summary

Over the past five years, newly registered pesticides have predominantly been low- or slightly toxic products. High‑efficacy, low‑risk new pesticides are gradually replacing high‑risk ones, playing a positive role in optimizing and upgrading the pesticide portfolio while reducing application volumes and enhancing efficiency. Environmentally friendly formulation types enjoy clear advantages in new‑pesticide registration and reflect an overarching trend in pesticide development. As of April 21, 2025, among all registered pesticide products in China, suspension concentrates number 11,076, ranking first and surpassing both emulsifiable concentrates and wettable powders. Recently, microbial pesticides have experienced rapid growth, now accounting for the majority of new registrations. The government has implemented numerous policies and measures to support and promote the development of biopesticides, and these products are expected to assume an increasingly prominent role in agricultural production going forward.

Source: Pesticide Science and Management, Issue 6, 2025

Authors: Bai Xiaoning; Zhao Annan; Fu Guiping; et al.