Agricultural Pheromones Market Report: Trends, Forecast and Competitive Analysis to 2035

Agricultural Pheromones Market

The future of the global agricultural pheromones market looks promising with opportunities in the dispenser, trap, and spray markets. The global agricultural pheromones market is expected to reach an estimated $24.1 billion by 2035 from $9.8 billion in 2027 with a CAGR of 15.3% from 2027 to 2035. The major drivers for this market are growing demand for sustainable crop protection solutions, rising awareness among farmers and focus on reducing chemical pesticide usage, along with the development in the technology and agricultural techniques globally.

• Lucintel forecasts that, within the material category, sex pheromones is expected to witness higher growing segment over the forecast period due to increasing adoption of pheromone-based solutions for pest management.
• Within the application category, dispenser is expected to witness the highest growth over the forecast period due to convenient targeted delivery improving pest control efficiency.
• In terms of regions, North America is expected to witness the highest region over the forecast period due to existence of prominent companies that mainly focus on building innovative agricultural pheromones in the region, as well as, increasing market penetration in forestry and agriculture.

Emerging Trends in Agricultural Pheromones Market

The market for agricultural pheromones is transitioning from a niche pest control market to a broader crop protection market between 2025 and 2027. With regulatory and residue challenges, along with the development of advanced dispensers, Lucintel expects adoption will increase in orchards, vineyards and protected crops. While we believe demand will track the biological inputs space, field performance and economics will ultimately drive adoption.

• Sustainability: In 2025, the EU continued to incentivize the replacement of broad-spectrum insecticides with pheromones and mating disruption programs. California further incentivized pheromone use in IPM guidance. Products typically require just a few grams of active ingredient per hectare, resulting in lower residues and beneficial insect damage, increasing adoption potential in the next 3 to 5 years.
• Automation: Trap networks more effectively combine digital monitoring with remote alerts; pilot programs reported a 30% scouting reduction during 2025, and manufacturers are combining dispensers with connected sensors. Automated decisions are likely to further expedite use of pheromones for large agricultural operations with limited labor.
• Biological Integration: Companies are placing pheromones alongside microbial biopesticides and beneficial insects as part of an integrated program, as reflected in Corteva's 2024-2025 biologicals expansion. Integrated programs will facilitate management of pest resistance and improve acceptance among distributors by 2030.
• Regional Supply Diversification: Producers are expanding their formulation and registration capacity outside of traditional North America and Europe. By 2025, the biopesticide industry in India exceeded 9,000 products, and local sourcing strengthened. Manufacturing in these regions will reduce time for product approvals, freight exposure, and open new markets.

Resistance management and reduced residue rules will encourage use of agricultural pheromones. Not all markets will adopt at the same pace; first to adopt will be high-value markets. Broad-acre markets will need faster adoption at lower costs. Long-term, suppliers of reliable pheromone formulations with supporting digital monitoring will be successful.

Recent Developments in the Agricultural Pheromones Market

Integrated crop protection programs are accelerating the use of agricultural pheromones in crop protection programs. This should particularly intensify between 2025-2027 due to ongoing regulatory pressures, resistance management and production of crops without residues. As such, nutritional expects the focus of commercial activities to be on mating disruption systems in high value fruits and nuts and other protected crops.

• Production Increases: There are ongoing investments to increase the production capacity of formulations, particularly in North America. Suterra's announced investment in March 2025 to increase its capacity reflects this. In the next three to five years, producers should be able to offer crop protection pheromone programs to distributors for large acreage crops.
• New Technologies: The introduction of dispensers with improved, more consistent, and longer release profiles should allow for decreased release frequencies and reduce labor costs for growers managing seasonal availability of field workers. For 2025, Provivi reported the commercial deployment of its technology for the control of rice stem borers to 100,000 hectares.
• Strategic Alliances: Biological control providers are increasingly focusing on strategic alliances with crop distributors and consultants, as well as digital scouting companies. For example, in January 2025, Biobest expanded its biological control cooperation to over 70 countries.
• Government Approvals: Regulatory agencies in the U.S. and other regions continued to approve pheromone-based products as low-residue tools for resistance management. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) registered several mating disruption uses in 2025 and expanded crop labels for some products in September 2025. The expanded labels should increase the addressable acreage, but the costs associated with the registration in each country will continue to slow the market entry.
• Major Contracts: Major retailers and food processors in Europe, are adopting procurement policies focusing on integrated pest management (IPM) and residue reduction. A major European fruit program awarded more than 25,000 hectares of production to pheromone-supported programs in 2025. Such contracts help justify a premium price and provide security of sales.

Pheromone-based products should achieve a significant market penetration from 2025 to 2027, mostly as a result of successful scalable manufacturing, rather than from product launches. Large-acreage programs will be dominated by integrated pest management (IPM) and pest control programs supported by field-based service, resistance management, and monitoring. Pheromone manufacturers still have an opportunity, particularly in the high value market segments, where labor shortages create justification for higher cost crop protection programs.

Strategic Growth Opportunities in the Agricultural Pheromones Market

The commercial demand for broad spectrum crop protection is shifting toward residue-sensitive and targeted approaches. Between 2024 and 2026, tighter pesticide regulations, resistance management, export requirements and limitations on agricultural labor, will create market windows for agricultural pheromones. Lucintel's market perspective also projects that specialty inputs will gain market share, as growers seek efficacy with lower environmental impact.

• Protected Crops: Greenhouses and high tunnels offer controlled release and residue-sensitive conditions, as well as a pest pressure that can be intense. As of March 2025, the USDA reported that protected vegetable crop sales in the U.S. were approximately $5.6 billion, expanding the market. The demand created will influence protected crop growers to adopt mating disruption for tomatoes, peppers, berries, and ornamentals.
• Residue-free Programs: The EU maintained its 25% organic-farming target for 2030 in January 2025. Retail specifications will push suppliers to provide premium, auditable pest management packages over the next three to five years. Conventional agriculture chemistry will continue to be restricted for various reasons, such as customer preferences, shifting global trade, and other regulations.
• Evolving Market Dynamics: Through local distributors, growing markets can be found in Latin America and Asia, for fruit and tree crops, as well as for cotton, oil palm and other plantation crops. In 2024, about 3.2 million tonnes of grapes were harvested in Brazil (2025 IBGE report). Better local registrations and technical support will transform pheromones from niche products to regional crop management products.
• Digital Application Services: Combining traps with geospatial scouting and weather data can improve placement and renewal decisions. In April 2025, one commercial monitoring platform reported coverage over 100,000 hectares. Data services will provide a recurring revenue stream. In addition, they will help prove the value of pheromone performance to large farms.
• Biological-input Integration: Suppliers can integrate pheromones with microbial biocontrols, beneficial insects and selective chemistries as part of a resistance management plan. In June 2025, the EU approved 12 new low-risk active substances. Integrated programs will help establish peak pest control and increase the adoption of pheromones.

The market will depend less on product availability and more on providing evidence of return per hectare. Registration and field experience will help determine the best return. Companies providing registration, field experience and data, and dependable supplies of lures will help provide the return and command the best price. Adoption is expected to be crop-specific. Protected and export crops will play a major role. Biological programs are also expected to play a major role through 2030.

Commercial demand is shifting from broad-spectrum crop protection toward residue-sensitive, targeted control. Between 2024 and 2026, tighter pesticide rules, resistance management, export standards, and labor shortages create room for agricultural pheromones. Lucintel's market perspective also points to specialty inputs gaining share as growers seek measurable efficacy with lower environmental exposure.

Protected-crop Applications: Greenhouses and high tunnels offer controlled release conditions and concentrated pest pressure. In March 2025, USDA reported US protected vegetable sales of $5.6 billion, expanding the addressable market. This opportunity will influence demand as growers adopt mating disruption for tomatoes, peppers, berries, and ornamentals.

Premium Residue-free Programs: Exporters can use pheromones to support low-residue and organic production where conventional chemistry faces customer restrictions. In January 2025, the European Union maintained its 25% organic-farming target for 2030. Retail specifications will push suppliers toward premium, auditable pest-management packages over the next three to five years.

Emerging-market Distribution: Latin America and Asia offer growth through local distributors serving fruit, cotton, and plantation crops. Brazil harvested about 3.2 million tonnes of grapes in 2024, according to IBGE data published in February 2025. Better local registration and technical support will convert pheromones from niche products into regional crop programs.

Digital Application Services: Connected traps, geospatial scouting, and weather data can improve placement and renewal decisions. In April 2025, one commercial monitoring platform reported coverage across more than 100,000 hectares. Data-linked services will create recurring revenue and make pheromone performance easier to prove to large farms.

Biological-input Integration: Suppliers can bundle pheromones with microbial biocontrols, beneficial insects, and selective chemistries under resistance-management plans. In June 2025, the EU approved 12 new low-risk active substances, reflecting continued regulatory support for alternatives. Integrated programs will increase adoption where standalone pheromones cannot meet peak pest pressure.

The market's next phase will depend less on product availability than on proof of return per hectare. Suppliers that combine registration expertise with field data, distributor training, and dependable lure supply should capture the strongest margins. Adoption will remain crop-specific, but protected cultivation, export fruit, and biological programs provide credible routes to sustained volume growth through 2030.

Agricultural Pheromones Market Drivers and Challenges

The growth of the agricultural pheromones market is influenced by technological changes, shifting pest control and environmental priorities. More growers are seeking residue-free options for conventional pesticides. Changes to agricultural policies and the adoption of improved pest control methods and technology foster market growth. Complex and expensive registration processes pose barriers to entry in some market segments. According to Lucintel, the chief barriers to more widespread market growth are high product costs, irregular field performance, and the difficulty in changing long-standing farmer practices.

The factors responsible for driving this market include:

• Increasing Demand for Residue-free Crop Protection: Consumers are becoming more concerned with the levels of residue in the produce they purchase, and the food processing industry is becoming more stringent in the levels of chemical residue in the raw produce they purchase. Mating disruption and monitoring solutions offer means to protect crops from pests without the use of chemical insecticides and can be better for growers in the long run. However, the constant presence of pheromones in the environment can negate the effect of mating disruption.
• Advancing Technology in Formulation and Delivery: Technology is improving the effectiveness of pheromone coverage and field practicality. In 2025, the combination of sensor-based crop scouting and pest alerts covered multiple crop zones on a given piece of farm equipment to reduce pesticide applications, making agricultural pheromones more viable for large-scale farming.
• Integrated Pest Management: There is greater emphasis on integrated pest management, with the use of biological, cultural, mechanical and chemical controls combined. As of February, 2025, many crop-protection programs in Europe and North America suggested using monitoring thresholds before using pesticides, and supporting the use of pheromone traps and mating disruption. During the next 3 to 5 years, it is expected that the use of pheromones to supply early warning and to help to manage target populations of insects will gain importance. As a result, pheromones will be used in orchards and protected crops as well as in specialty crops.
• Regulatory and Sustainability Supports: There are initiatives to promote lower-risk pest-management options to help protect the environment and decrease the exposure of agricultural workers and the need to use broad-spectrum pesticides. As of April 2025, in several of the large agricultural countries, there were variations in the requirements for an expedited evaluation for biopesticide products. In general, policies in this direction will stimulate investments for the research and registration of pheromones. In the next 3 to 5 years, the use of pheromone products to help meet the goals for reducing the use of insecticides and improving the sustainability of the supply chain is expected to improve the access to markets of these products.
• Rise of High-value and Protected Agriculture: Facilities such as orchards, vineyards, and greenhouses, as well as seed-production operations, can justify the cost of pheromone release systems, as pest damage can affect quality and market price. In May 2025, the growth of commercial systems using controlled environments further increased the demand for accurate, low-residue pest management. The next three to five years should see continued strong growth in protected cultivation and intensive horticulture. Higher crop value, tighter residue requirements, and more concentrated pest populations create opportunities for the use of pheromones for monitoring and mating disruption in low-value, high-volume crops.

The challenges facing this market include:

• High Product and Application Costs: Pheromone programs require the use of specialized dispensers, and can require trained labor and precise timing. In June 2025, growers in specialty crop regions reported further cost pressures due to inflation of labor and energy costs. Over the next three to five years, these costs will likely limit the use of pheromone-based Integrated Pest Management programs among small and low-margin crop producers.
• Variable Field Performance and Pest Complexity: Performance can fluctuate due to pest density, weather conditions, crop structure, size of the crop area, and migration from untreated areas. In July 2025, field management programs indicated that pheromone release should be timed with precision and repeated. With pest conditions that can be complex and vary, growers who expect more immediate results like with conventional insecticides may be discouraged. In the next three to five years, better pest forecasting and integrated management systems will be needed. Performance will depend on consistent results in a range of climates, crops, and fragmented farm structures.
• Lengthy Registration and Limited Technical Capacity: Rules for pheromone product registration vary from country to country and include requirements for toxicology, environment, efficacy, and residue. Registration of biological and semiochemical products in August 2025, continued to be different and difficult to predict among major farming jurisdictions, increasing cost and time to market.

Harmonized standards and low-risk pathways should speed up the development of new products in the next 3-5 years. However, due to lack of these standards, smaller manufacturers may find it difficult to fund clinical trials, train distributors, and maintain registrations in different markets in the near term. There is a shift in the agricultural pheromones market towards use of more sustainable, precise, and integrated pest management systems. There will be increasing demand for residue-free food, and other positive trends such as, advancements in technology and farming, and supportive regulations, will create ample opportunities for growth in the agricultural market. However, high costs and variable performance of the pheromones, coupled with complex and lengthy registrations processes and lack of adequate technical know-how, will hamper adoption, especially in small and medium farms. There is potential for positive outcome from long-lasting pheromone formulations, better sensors, farm management systems, and/or more convincing economic evidence. In the next 3-5 years, pheromones are likely to gain higher importance in crop protection, and although their use will increase across the regions, the adoption in various crop protection will be uneven.

List of Agricultural Pheromones Market Companies

Companies in the market compete on the basis of product quality offered. Major players in this market focus on expanding their manufacturing facilities, R&D investments, infrastructural development, and leverage integration opportunities across the value chain. Through these strategies agricultural pheromones market companies cater increasing demand, ensure competitive effectiveness, develop innovative products & technologies, reduce production costs, and expand their customer base. Some of the agricultural pheromones market companies profiled in this report include-

• Shin-Etsu Chemical
• BASF
• Mitsui & Co
• Biobest
• The Wonderful Company
• Russell
• Bedoukian
• Pherobank
• Koppert Biological
• Gowan

Agricultural Pheromones Market by Segment

The study includes a forecast for the global agricultural pheromones by function, material, application, and region

Agricultural Pheromones Market by Function [Value ($B) from 2019 to 2035]:

• Detection & Monitoring
• Mass Trapping
• Mating Disruption

Agricultural Pheromones Market by Material [Value ($B) from 2019 to 2035]:

• Sex Pheromones
• Aggregation Pheromones
• Others

Agricultural Pheromones Market by Application [Value ($B) from 2019 to 2035]:

• Dispensers
• Traps
• Sprays

Agricultural Pheromones Market by Region [Value ($B) from 2019 to 2035]:

• North America
• Europe
• Asia Pacific
• The Rest of the World

Country Wise Outlook for the Agricultural Pheromones Market

Agricultural pheromones market is moving from a niche market for use in select orchards to regulated markets for integrated pest management. Public funding and tighter residue rules are expected to accelerate market growth from 2025 to 2027. As per our latest report, the market is becoming more competitive with dependence on breadth of registrations, reliability of formulations, and field partnerships.

• United States: Regulatory and Biocontrol Investments: In January 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency registered additional biopesticide products which included pheromone-based crop protection products. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's 2025 agricultural research budget was above $1.5 billion. More publicly funded crop trials can positively impact pheromone use for high value crops.
• China: Deployment of orchards and domestic production; China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs expanded its green-prevention program in 2025, promoting integrated pest-management tools in key fruit-growing regions, and domestic suppliers ramped up production of pheromone traps. With an estimated 12.9 million hectares of fruit-bearing land in 2024, the country's large scale orchards will influence the size and scope of the market, particularly with the adoption of coordinated regional procurement and on-site manufacturing.
• Germany: Compliance with EU regulations; in February 2025, the European Commission renewed approvals for a number of low-risk and semiochemical active substances, supporting national registrations for mating-disruption products. Along with Japan, Germany has the most stringent residue limits, making the country an important reference for commercialization throughout the EU.
• India: Public natural farming; 2025 saw further implementation of the National Mission on Natural Farming with ₹2,481 crore allotted for the program and the promotion of pheromone traps as an ecological pest-management tool. With further government-funded research and farm demonstrations, domestic orchard and field crops may start using these products on a large-scale.
• Japan: Research and development; in April 2025, Shin-Etsu Chemical Company, Ltd. announced further investments in specialty chemicals, including agricultural pheromones, and Japanese fruit growers continued to use mating disruption for a range of pests. Japan's advanced dispenser technology along with an export-oriented economy will be instrumental in further advancing and improving pheromone products in the region.

Features of the Global Agricultural Pheromones Market

• Market Size Estimates: agricultural pheromones market size estimation in terms of value ($B).
• Trend and Forecast Analysis: Market trends (2019 to 2026) and forecast (2027 to 2035) by various segments and regions.
• Segmentation Analysis: agricultural pheromones market size by function, material, application, and region in terms of value ($B).
• Regional Analysis: agricultural pheromones market breakdown by North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World.
• Growth Opportunities: Analysis of growth opportunities in different function, material, application, and regions for the agricultural pheromones market.
• Strategic Analysis: This includes M&A, new product development, and competitive landscape of the agricultural pheromones market.

Analysis of competitive intensity of the industry based on Porter's Five Forces model.

If you are looking to expand your business in this or adjacent markets, then contact us. We have done hundreds of strategic consulting projects in market entry, opportunity screening, due diligence, supply chain analysis, M & A, and more.

This report answers following 11 key questions:

• Q.1. What are some of the most promising, high-growth opportunities for the agricultural pheromones market by function (detection & monitoring, mass trapping, and mating disruption), material (sex pheromones, aggregation pheromones, and others), application (dispensers, traps, and sprays), and region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of the World)?
• Q.2. Which segments will grow at a faster pace and why?
• Q.3. Which region will grow at a faster pace and why?
• Q.4. What are the key factors affecting market dynamics? What are the key challenges and business risks in this market?
• Q.5. What are the business risks and competitive threats in this market?
• Q.6. What are the emerging trends in this market and the reasons behind them?
• Q.7. What are some of the changing demands of customers in the market?
• Q.8. What are the new developments in the market? Which companies are leading these developments?
• Q.9. Who are the major players in this market? What strategic initiatives are key players pursuing for business growth?
• Q.10. What are some of the competing products in this market and how big of a threat do they pose for loss of market share by material or product substitution?
• Q.11. What M&A activity has occurred in the last 8 years and what has its impact been on the industry?