Specialty Products Consultants completed a benchmark market research study of the professional turf and ornamental pesticide market in the United States. More than 1000 golf course superintendents, lawn care operators, and ornamental plant producers were surveyed.
Professional lawn care operators are caring for about 3 million acres of residential and commercial turf throughout the United States. Nationwide, professional lawn care companies recorded revenues of $4.2 billion for their service during 2003. TruGreen ChemLawn, the nations largest lawn care company, has about 22.4-percent share of this market.
An additional 1.1 million acres of turf is managed by golf course superintendents nationwide. Superintendents surveyed said they made an average of more than 14 fungicide applications to tees and greens during 2003.
Almost $700 million (manufacturer level dollars) was spent this past year on fungicides, herbicides, insecticides and plant growth regulators in the markets analyzed. Syngenta Professional Products and Bayer Environmental Science are the two top suppliers of the professional turf and ornamental market. Led by their flagship fungicides, Heritage (azoxystrobin) and Daconcil (chlorothalonil), Syngenta hass more than 40-percent share of the U.S. turf and ornamental fungicide market. In the insecticide sector, Bayer’s Merit (imidacloprid) is the top seller by a margin of more than 2.5 to one. Dow AgroSciences is the third largest supplier, selling Dimension (dithiopyr) and other pre-emergent herbicides.
Nationwide, four of five golf course superintendents were aware of new technologies such as transgenic turfgrass (e.g., Roundup Ready Creeping Bentgrass). Throughout regions with cool season turfgrass, about half of the superintendents interviewed said they were somewhat likely to highly likely to convert their course to this type of turfgrass. Based on the adoption rate assessed in this survey and the acreage superintendents said they would convert, it's estimated the potential value of Roundup Ready Creeping Bentgrass could exceed $1.5 billion. The use of this transgenic turfgrass seed is pending approval by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The study also examined awareness, usage and satisfaction of pesticides applied in residential and commercial lawn care, on golf courses, and in ornamental nurseries and floriculture production.
Specialty Products Consultants LLC, headquartered in Mendham, N.J., is a market research and business development consultancy dedicated to the specialty (non-crop) pesticide industry.
