Agriculture megatrends and market environment

Longer-term trends

The challenge in agriculture is to produce 30% more food by 2050 when land is limited, crop yields are falling, and regulations are becoming tighter. For farmers, these changes need to occur when unstable geopolitics are driving deglobalisation, and economic volatility is impacting grower profitability.

Faced with such challenges, crop science companies are working with partners such as Croda who can help them meet these development needs and balance productivity with sustainability. Our response is to develop new effects to meet unmet market needs, enhancing the differentiation of our portfolio.

Current market environment

Demand for our ingredients from our agriculture customers has been more volatile than in any other sector over the last five years. 2025 saw a recovery in demand from larger crop science customers, aided by our proactive actions.

Demand in 2026 is not expected to benefit from the customer inventory rebuild that positively impacted our performance in 2025, but with crop commodity prices stable, volatility should be less pronounced than in recent years.

The customer environment in agriculture has been changing, with MNCs focusing on their core activities, the rise of generic manufacturers, particularly in China, and ongoing consolidation of smaller biopesticide specialists. We are responding with comprehensive customer segmentation and the continued regionalisation of our R&D expertise.

Crop commodity prices

Download and read our Croda’s 2025 Annual Report to explore our financial performance, strategic progress, sustainability highlights, and innovation driving long-term growth.