The scramble to find enough fungicide to save saturated grain crops has chemical being pulled off shelves in the Top End and the West Australian wheatbelt to fill orders from frantic farmers in the eastern states.
Chemical companies say never before has so much of the Australian grain belt been so desperate for spray products to control mould and disease problems in lush cereal, canola and grain legume crops.
Demand is probably 20 per cent to 30pc higher than the wet cropping seasons of 2010 and 2011, according to Syngenta’s broadacre crop marketing head, Craig Thompson.
“It’s been the biggest year on record for our portfolio,” he said, noting demand had been intensified by big chickpea and lentil plantings and more routine preventative treatments with fungicides on all crops.
Distributors say supplies are not just tight in Australia, but also overseas thanks to a similar demand in parts of South America.
Depressed global grain prices have also discouraged manufacturers from producing surplus stocks in the past year.
Insecticides are also likely to be in peak demand within weeks and throughout summer after the unseasonably soggy spring has produced a mass of vegetative growth – perfect breeding and feeding conditions for hungry grubs and sap sucking insects.
Orchard and vineyard operators are also bracing for a big spray season, with fungicide orders now flooding in from across the horticulture sector.
“The bugs are already biting in areas like WA and the Victorian Mallee,” said Nufarm’s commercial head, Peter O’Keeffe.
Nufarm, which supplies as much as 25pc of Australia’s crop protection market, this year cranked up a newly commissioned $10 million fungicide and insecticide plant in Melbourne’s west, but production lines have struggled to keep ahead of orders.
Initial supplies of new cereal fungicide Tazer Xpert sold out just six weeks after its launch.
Mr O’Keeffe said the extended period of big volume winter spraying activity had caught chemical firms “on the hop” as they now also prepared for a sizeable recovery in summer cotton planting area, mung beans and sorghum.
Ruralco’s national crop protection category manager, Nick Kemp, said his retail supply network had been working flat out for six weeks juggling widespread demand which began with an early WA season, then exploded across eastern Australia in late July.
Surplus fungicide stocks had been trucked back across the Nullabor to NSW and southern Queensland, while product from North Queensland horticulture areas was being sent as far south as Victoria to supply areas desperate to control problems ranging from sclerotinia in canola, to rust and powdery mildew in cereals.
“Last year the spray season was all over by late July, but this year is staying so cool and damp so we could still be needing product until late October,” he said.
On Queensland’s western Darling Downs, Condamine rural merchant, Peter Tomlinson, was this week sourcing product from Kununurra in northern WA, having bought 4000 litres from a merchant in South Australia two weeks ago.
“We can’t get what we need from the usual suppliers so I’m phoning anybody I can get hold of,” he said.
Product scarcity had also sent prices soaring, with Mr Tomlinson’s WD Rural now paying $25 a litre to buy chemical he sourced for just $15 in July.
Air freighting extra supplies into Australia and dragging it across the country to meet tight timelines had pushed costs up rapidly.
“But we’ve actually cut our usual (retail) percentage on at the moment,” he said.
“We just want to get product out to our customers so they can save as much of their crops as possible after already throwing so much at them this year.”
Syngenta’s Mr Thompson agreed prices had jumped, but increases had been “moderate” given the extra freight effort and peak demand on supply chains.
“I don’t think price movements have been too significant, but in many cases growers are willing to do whatever it takes to get another spray on their pulse crops – there’s a lot of potential income at stake,” he said.
Ruralco’s Mr Kemp said prices now varied wildly depending on the product available, but he estimated supply costs had doubled from about $15 a hectare to more than $30/ha as demand climbed this season.
NSW northern slopes farmer, Don Howard, was lucky to probably have enough fungicide on hand, but he expected to be spraying his 120ha chickpea crop twice more before harvest in late November on "Wheatlands" at Manilla.
He had been busy for two months running an ongoing spray program between repeated rain events.