At a critical juncture of in-depth adjustment in the global agrochemical industry, the voice of Eric Seban, CEO of CCAB Agro, a leading agricultural cooperative in Brazil, is particularly resounding. This industry elite, who has both experience in France's Invivo agricultural cooperative and practical insights into the Brazilian market, has pierced through the surface of the current agrochemical market in an in-depth interview and pointed out a way out for industry participants trapped in confusion.

"The market is destroying value, destroying value, destroying value... We don't know how low it will go." When asked about his views on the current market, Eric Seban's repeated exclamations voiced the collective anxiety of the industry. A set of data he presented is even more shocking: in 2021, the price of soybeans in Brazil was 73 reais per bag, with a production cost of 40 reais, and farmers made considerable profits; five years later, the soybean price has risen to 110 reais per bag, but farmers are struggling to pay their bills.

The surge in costs is undoubtedly a direct trigger - rising from 40 reais to over 100 reais. However, Eric Seban accurately pointed out that the culprit is not core inputs such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides, but irrational expenditures stimulated by the high-price market during the epidemic. "It's like someone who earns 100,000 yuan a month but spends 50,000 yuan every day in the mall, then complains that the salary is not enough; or buys a Chanel bag and a private jet but has no money for fuel," he said with an incisive metaphor. "Farmers must maintain competitiveness and rationality. The core dilemma of the current market is not a price issue, but a discipline issue."

The chaos caused by this lack of discipline is even more fatal against the backdrop of overcapacity. When talking about China's agrochemical industry, Eric Seban reached a surprising consensus with Chinese industry insiders: "Overcapacity is destroying the value of the entire industry." A set of comparisons he provided is striking: products that sold for $10 two years ago now only cost $2.5 to $3. To maintain operations, some enterprises even cut corners on quality, which in his view is no different from drinking poison to quench thirst. "When low-quality products fail in the fields, farmers will turn to multinational corporations without hesitation, and they have been waiting for this day."

Despite his sharp words, Eric Seban highly recognized the global status of China's agrochemical industry: "China is feeding the global crop protection industry. Without China, Brazil would completely collapse and the world would go hungry." However, this importance makes the harm of the current price war even more prominent - China's industry is moving towards self-destruction through internal friction.

When the entire industry is mired in a dilemma, CCAB Agro has achieved a 50% growth in the past three years, doubling its scale to an annual revenue of $320 million, becoming a model of breaking through adversity. Eric Seban attributed this success to three core pillars, providing a replicable example for the industry.

Extreme operational efficiency is CCAB's primary competitive advantage. "We only have 28 field sales representatives covering areas that require hundreds of people in other companies," Eric Seban said with obvious pride. "Each of our salespeople generates $13 million in revenue, while competitors generally only achieve $3-4 million per person." In his view, the root cause of the efficiency gap lies in team execution and sense of responsibility - many professionals who jump ship from large multinational corporations "have not solved any practical problems in their 30-year careers and only know how to shirk responsibility when problems arise", while CCAB advocates a corporate culture of full participation and proactive accountability.

Strict and even harsh supplier selection criteria have built CCAB's quality moat. As a cooperative owned by farmers, CCAB always prioritizes farmers' interests and has established five non-negotiable criteria: consistent and reliable quality, reasonable rather than the lowest pricing, long-term sustainable thinking, compliance with Brazil's complex registration requirements, and financial support adapted to Brazil's long payment collection cycle. "I will not buy inferior products for the sake of so-called competitiveness," Eric Seban emphasized. CCAB only cooperates with manufacturers that can control key intermediates and raw materials to ensure quality from the source of the value chain.

The somewhat controversial view that "service innovation is more important than product innovation" is actually the core logic behind CCAB's breakthrough. CCAB covers a market of $9-10 billion with only 64 products, and there are few new compounds in its product line. Eric Seban explained: "80% of soybean protection uses off-patent products, and the cost of developing new molecules is too high. What the agricultural industry really needs is service innovation that is close to farmers, which is precisely the shortcoming of platforms such as Amazon and Alibaba." It is reported that CCAB is developing a digital solution that will realize the full-chain service of "direct delivery from Shanghai to farms", filling the current market gap.

For Chinese manufacturers eager to enter the Brazilian market, Eric Seban provided a straightforward "do's and don'ts" list. On the "do's" list, he emphasized the need to select partners accurately, cultivate real relationships in depth, maintain a long-term perspective, adhere to quality bottom lines, and more importantly, send leadership to visit the market in person to fully understand the local supply chain logic. On the "don'ts" list, the following points are particularly prominent: "Don't expect overnight success", "Don't destroy value by engaging in price wars", "Don't only engage in pure trade without added value", and "Don't ignore compliance requirements". He particularly criticized the aggressive expansion of some enterprises: "Being obsessed with market access but lacking discipline will eventually lead to factory closures due to insufficient orders. You shouldn't complain about low prices if you are destroying value yourself."

Regarding the current popular biopesticide track, Eric Seban maintained a pragmatic and rational attitude. As a practitioner in a country that has 30 years of experience in using biological products and launched the world's first biopesticide promotion project, he said bluntly: "More than 80% of biopesticides need to be used in combination with chemicals, rather than as a substitute. They are more complex to use, slightly less efficient, and more expensive. There is no such thing as a 'magic product'." He also pointed out that there are 750 biopesticide companies in Brazil, but each has an annual sales volume of only $1-5 million, and the extremely fragmented market urgently needs to be transformed.

When talking about the global agrochemical industry pattern, Eric Seban highly praised China's long-termism: "More than 80% of the world's pesticide production comes from China. China is willing to invest in projects that others consider 'impossible', such as the railway from Peru to Brazil. This is the power of long-term thinking." Regarding competition from India, he believes that although India can occupy 10%-20% of the market with its more business-friendly policies, it cannot compete with China in terms of industrial chain fundamentals. It may take 10-20 years for India to be on par with China.

Despite his worries about the current industry situation, Eric Seban is not pessimistic: "There is no simple solution to this entire situation. But the market will eventually correct itself, which is painful but necessary. I have seen some manufacturers show discipline - they visit the market, build relationships, and maintain quality. Service delivery innovation is becoming a key differentiator." He concluded that success will eventually belong to enterprises that "maintain discipline, focus on service delivery, build real partnerships, think long-term and resist price wars. This is both a survival crisis and an opportunity to reshape the industry."

At the end of the interview, Eric Seban made a thought-provoking statement: "Amazon and Alibaba have long changed the world, but the service level of the agrochemical industry is still stuck in the past. Whoever can take the lead in breaking this stagnation will win the future." This sentence may be the core key to breaking the dilemma in the global agrochemical industry.