That's the advice from Kenso NZ.

“The image of cheap, generic product out of China has really been tarnished,” says manager Andrew Fulford.

“The price has now doubled from the lows we saw in the market place and product is in short supply. This situation is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.”

Multiple factors at play in an unregulated market could catch buyers of glyphosatebased herbicides unawares, says Fulford, whose parent company Kenso Corporation has built a performance record over more than 30 years.

“A lot of small opportunistic players have been forced out of the market as the Chinese government cracks down on industrial pollution in a bid to improve the quality of its environment.

“Even major producers have been forced to slow production rates down so they can better manage their waste. They also have to decide whether significant capital investment to bring their facilities up to an acceptable standard is economically justified.”

Kenso was in a sound position with three modern manufacturing facilities in the Asian region and well established links up and down the supply chain.

“The result is that we can offer certainty with our product manufactured to a high standard at competitive prices,” Fulford says.

Glyphosate is one of the most widely-used knock down herbicides in the world owing to its excellent efficiency in weed control.

China is a major manufacturer, but also has a huge domestic market with over 70 million hectares of cultivated land relying on the use of herbicides.

Andrew Fulford says Chinese producers are no longer permitted to sell low concentrate glyphosate – essentially a waste product – into their local market making it harder for manufacturers to resolve waste management issues.

The ban has resulted in a reshuffle of the domestic Chinese usage patterns.

This has created considerable uncertainty in the marketplace and put upward pressure on prices with supply really stretched to meet demand.

“Times like this put a real premium on the reputation of the supplier."

Closer to home, the significant decline in the value of the Australian and NZ dollars has also had an impact on local formulated price.

Demand had been very strong despite being out of season.

“At the same time as supply constraints are biting, we have seen that global demand for glyphosate continues to increase steadily with the planting of more and more genetically modified crops.

“This will keep upward pressure on prices for the foreseeable future.

“In such a challenging environment, resellers and users of these popular herbicides really need to have a strong relationship with

recognised suppliers that they can rely on,” he says.