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Data Exclusivity Risks Undermining India's Global Agrochemical Play
AgroSpectrum
|AgroSpectrum India Feb 2026
The agrochemicals sector has moved to the centre of policy and industry attention, driven by a convergence of domestic regulatory debates and shifting global market dynamics. At the heart of the current discussion is data exclusivity, an issue that has assumed growing significance for India's agrochemical industry and its export competitiveness.
India’s apex agrochemical trade body, the Crop Care Federation of India (CCFI), has released a white paper opposing the introduction of data exclusivity for agrochemicals. Titled “Data Exclusivity: Highly Detrimental to India’s Farm Economy and Agrochemicals Exports”, the paper has been submitted to Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. CCFI lays out ten reasons why granting exclusive rights over regulatory data would be harmful to farmers, manufacturers, and the broader economy.
The federation’s concerns stem from the structure of the global agrochemical market, where over 90 per cent of products are generics. Indian companies are major players in this space, leveraging cost efficiency, scale, and manufacturing capabilities. Over the past five years, India has generated a trade surplus of nearly $16 billion from agrochemical exports. CCFI members account for around 70 per cent of India’s exports to 167 countries and rank among the top three exporters globally.
This story is from the AgroSpectrum India Feb 2026 edition of AgroSpectrum.
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