On a global basis, cost of insecticides for cotton at the farmer level in 2001was $1.719 billion (Wood Mackenzie 2002) (Table 12). Cost of insecticide per hectare in developing countries can be as high as $ 200 per hectare in countries such as Brazil. In terms of percentage of cotton production operational costs, insecticides can be as high as 45% in India and Pakistan. Calculated as a percentage of the total spent on insecticides for all crops nationally, the highest is for cotton insecticides in Central and West African countries at 80%, followed by Pakistan at 79%, India at 48% and Brazil at 25%. The reliance on cotton insecticides in developing countries is high and in many cases represents a hardship for producers when the international price of cotton is low and when cotton is the only principal cash crop.

The data in Table 12 present a global overview of the cost of cotton insecticides at the farmer level with a value of $1.719 billion in 2001; this excludes the cost of insecticide application by producers which is significant given a global range of 2 to 12 sprays, with an average of approximately 5.5 sprays on 33.5 million hectares of cotton. By far the largest market for cotton insecticides is in Asia ($961 million), the majority of which is in the developing countries ($811 million), principally India, China and Pakistan. CIS and Australia have markets valued at $92 million and $57 million respectively. It is noteworthy that insecticide sales in China in 2001 decreased by over 10% compared with 2000, whereas sales in India and Pakistan in 2001 were slightly higher. The decrease in China is correlated with a significant increase of approximately 1 million hectares of Bt cotton in 2001. The cost of cotton insecticides for Asia at $ 961 million is 70% higher than the corresponding value for the Americas ($557 million), where the major market is the US at $340 million, which is at a similar level to India. The cotton insecticide market for Africa is significant at $194 million, and unlike Asia, there are no major countries like China, India and Pakistan, which dominate and comprise a large percentage of the market – on the contrary the African market comprises 22 countries valued at an average of less than $10 million each. The smallest regional market (valued at $7 million) is Europe, where cotton is grown in Spain and Greece.

In summary, Asia is the continent that captures the largest share (56%) of the global cotton insecticide market followed by the Americas at 32%, Africa 11%, and Europe with less than 1%. Within Asia, the developing countries are by far the most important, representing over 80% of the market with CIS (principally Uzbekistan) and Australia representing only 5% and 3% respectively of the global market. The Americas represent 32% of the global market with the US being the major country representing 60%, Brazil 10% and the balance of 30% in other countries in Latin America.