A first ever “International Crop Science Conference and Exhibition, “ICSC 2011”, was organized in Moscow from July 4-5, 2011, by the Pesticides Manufacturers & Formulators Association of India (PMFAI), with the China Crop Protection Industry Association (CCPIA), and the support of the Russian Union of Crop Protection & Manufacturers and the Russian Grain Union.
Welcoming participants, Mr. Pradip Dave, President of PMFAI, stated that the aim of “ICSC 2011” was to enhance cooperation in the field of agriculture, among manufacturers and traders in agrochemicals and allied industries, and to bring them on a single platform to discuss and get acquainted with recent trends and developments in the agrochemical industry. He pointed out that the Indian pesticides industry was the second largest in Asia, after China, and the third largest in the world. He anticipated that "ICSC 2011” would provide business expansion opportunities for agrochemicals and allied chemicals, via bilateral trade, joint ventures, contract manufacturing, joint R&D efforts, etc. In turn, CCPIA General Secretary, Mr. Sun Shubao, welcomed the convening of “ICSC 2011” and noted that China and India were presently the world’s two largest global producers of agro-chemicals, while Russia was the largest consumer in the CIS.
Inaugurating “ICSC 2011”, Indian Ambassador Ajai Malhotra highlighted that India’s bilateral trade with Russia had been growing in recent years but still remained well below potential. There was tremendous scope for enhancing exports to Russia of pesticides and other agrochemicals and overall in the chemicals sectors, including organic, inorganic and specialty chemicals. Ambassador Mr. Malhotra recalled that the registration procedure in Russia required that field trials be carried out before agrochemicals could be sold in Russia and that these trials could only be performed locally by a few specified state-owned organizations. He, however, stressed that once the registration process was successfully undertaken it opened up very attractive vistas for exports and other forms of cooperation with Russian partners.
A rather unique feature of “ICSC 2011” is that it had brought together large scale participation exclusively by Indian and Chinese companies as sellers and Russian companies as buyers or prospective partners. 68 Indian companies (45 members of PMFAI and 23 of CHEMEXCIL) and 45 Chinese companies (all CCPIA members) had attended “ICSC 2011”, and 39 exhibitors showing their products or service in their stalls to visitors face to face. This also reflected the confidence of Indian and Chinese pesticides manufacturers that they had quality products to offer at competitive prices.
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