The Possibilities of Slovakian Pyrethrum Production

Štefan Tóth1, Michal Stričík2, Štefan Týr3 and Tomáš Vereš3 1Centre of Crop Production Reseach Piešťany, Research Institute of Agroecology Michalovce, Špitálska 1273, 071 01 Michalovce, Slovak Republic (toth@minet.sk) 2The University of Economics in Bratislava, Faculty of Business Economics with seat in Košice, Tajovského 13, 041 30 Kosice 1, Slovak Republic (michal.stricik@euke.sk) 3Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Faculty of Agrobiology and Food Resources, Department of Sustainable Agriculture and Herbology, Tr. A. Hlinku 2, 949 76 Nitra, Slovak Republic (Stefan.Tyr@uniag.sk; Tomas.Veres@uniag.sk) Received: July 12, 2012 Accepted: September 4, 2012

Current taxonomic classification has transferred this species from the Chrysanthemum genus to Tanacetum.The species is called pyrethrum in the Slovak botanical nomenclature (Červenka et al., 1986;Dostál, 1989).Pyrethrum in its refined form is a yellow, viscous substance with oily consistency and weak flower odor.It is a compound consisting of six knows esters commonly referred to as pyrethrums.Pyrethrum is highly effective against many species of insects but its toxicity to people and warm-blooded animals is low because of its fast biotransformation (Crombie, 1980;Gerberg, 1995;Tomlin, 2003;Duchon et al., 2009;Srivasteva et al., 2011).It could be used by municipal utilities, or in organic, integrated or conventional crop cultivation because of its natural origin and high biocide effect.Pyrethrum has been used mainly for protection of cereal products, vegetables and animals.It could also be used to protect human habitats and animals against insects.There are two possible uses: the first is spraying the fine dry pulp of flowers and the other spraying their extract.A third form is incense sticks to protect against mosquitoes causing malaria.There are some extracts of pyrethrum used in sprays in many homes (MacDonald, 1995;Silcox and Roth, 1995;Nazari and Kambrabani, 2008).
The aim of this paper is to show the prospects for marketing pyrethrum produced away from its area of origin.We show retrospective participation of different countries and their world market shares, including pyrethrum products and some other production data.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
We used COMTRADE and FAOSTAT statistics for identifying the commodity and analyzing its historical development and status of world production, both imports and exports.We used COMTRADE data for commodity 130214 -Pyrethrum.These data show the financial value of pyrethrum's world imports and exports including products in USD and identify major importers and exporters.Statistical data from FAO-STAT were used to show the world scope of harvest areas, yields and production of pyrethrum in the period 1961-2010 (status 2012).
For a financial assessment of prospects for Slovak production of pyrethrum we used selected yield data (Tóth, 2011) and we adapted the calculation formula of RIAFE (Kubánková and Burianová, 2009).An earlier study by Tóth (Tóth, 2011) indicated possibilities for pyrethrum production in the Eastern Slovak Lowland, and reported detailed data about pyrethrum yields and growing conditions.The adapted calculation formula of RIAFE is suitable for a comprehensive financial statement of cost analysis for the growing process of reintroduced or newly introduced crops (Porvaz et al., 2011).
In the submitted work we also presented a SWOT analysis of prospects for pyrethrum production in Central European conditions with special regard to Slovak specificities.The SWOT analysis was used to describe the position of Slovak pyrethrum production internally and externally, which can identify a recommended future strategy based on product analysis and matching of strengths and weaknesses of the production on the one side, and production opportunities and threats on the other.This analysis assigns a weight to each criterion, percentages from 0 to 100, and strengths from 1 to 10.The higher the rating is, the higher the force.The resulting value is the product of weight and strength of a criterion.The recommended future strategies are established by matching the figures for each criterion, and quantifying the difference between the strengths and weaknesses, and opportunities and threats.The results of determination of our position in the coordinate system show a resulting product strategy.For the SWOT analysis, we adapted the approaches of Global Development Solutions (2011), the critical success factors in product development (Cooper and Kleinschmidt, 2007) and the strategy model valuation (Slávik, 1997;Zoborský et al., 2003).

RESuLTS AND DISCuSION
The world scope of harvest areas, yields and weight production of pyrethrum in the period 1961-2010 is presented in Table 1.The trade value of pyrethrum world imports in USD and net weights in kg are presented in Table 2.According to this data, the world's most important pyrethrum producing country is Kenya.The world production reached 21,000 tons in 1972, with Kenya accounting for 14,400 t, Tanzania for 4,300 t, Rwanda for 1,000 t, Ecuador for 1,000 t and Japan for 380 t.In the 1980s, the world production of pyrethrum decreased with an expansion of synthetic pyrethroids.Currently, the world's pyrethrum stocks reach nearly 5,000 tons.The pyrethrum world import trade value is nearly 70 million USD and its net weight is nearly one thousand tons.The world's most important producer is still Kenya (Table1).FAOSTAT and COMTRADE data (Table 1 and 2) also identify other important pyrethrum producers, such as Papua New Guinea, etc., as well as leading importers (USA, Italy, Canada, etc.).Other countries where Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium (Trevir.)Vis. is grown for insecticide use includes Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, California, France, Russia, Spain, and Switzerland.Today we see a great effort of many research institutes and commercial companies to revitalize for many reasons the cultivation and processing of pyrethrum in agrarian systems in Croatia (Crmanić and Lelaska, 2003;Oplanić et al., 2005;Grdiša et al., 2009).It is similar in many European and overseas countries (Bhat and Menary, 1984;Zito, 1994;Singh and Singh, 1996;Otterbach, 2000;Salardini, 2001;Nazari and Kambrabani, 2008;Duchon et al., 2009).
The species Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium (Trevir.)originating in Dalmatia has been described and accredited since 1840.According to various data, this European variant of Persian chamomile had been introduced to the favourable climatic and geographic conditions of the Adriatic coast.The species' area of distribution expanded to all inhabited continents and substituted another conventional source of pyrethrum owing to its economic aspect.Its cultivation has expanded in African countries, mainly in Kenya (1930), Tanzania and Rwanda, and in Ecuador, Papua New Guinea (1950) and Australia (1980).The countries involved in cultivation of pyrethrums and their imports and exports include France, German, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Brazil, Russia, Switzerland, Spain, Canada, Bulgaria, Serbia, Slovenia, etc.The idea of revitalization of its production and processing originates in Croatia, the ex-leader of world production (Bhat and Menary, 1984;Červenka et al., 1986;Dostál, 1989;Copping, 1998;Tomlin, 2003;Oplanić et al., 2005).
Pyrethrum as an agent with insecticidal effects was officially accepted for expoitation in the Adriatic region in 1860.It was the Dalmatian Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium (Trevir.)Vis. that was planted on 2000 ha and its average yield reached 1000 t of dry drug in 1909.Croatia became the leader in world production of pyrethrum in 1914 (Ožanić, 1955cit. in Oplanić et al., 2005).This crop production was leading on the world market because of the highly valued qualitative and quantitative characteristics of plant material grown in the Dalmatian region and in other parts of the former Yugoslavia (Montenegro, Herzegovina, Dubrovnik, Krk and Hvar islands), considering its quality and pyrethrins contents.
Pyrethrum production stopped in the Adrian area after the outbreak of First World War in 1914.Japan then emerged as a leader on the world market.It all changed again in the year 1918, when Dalmatia renewed its production.Pyrethrum production reached 1,000 t in 1919.It was discovered the same year that kerosene extracts of pyrethrum, obtained from dried slacks, had insecticidal effect.There was a gradual decrease in the production of pyrethrum powder on the market.The powder form of pyrethrum was replaced by liquid products about nine years later (Copping, 1998;Tomlin, 2003;Oplanić et al., 2005).
The results of a research by Staudinger and Ruzicka (1924) about structure identification of the active compound in pyrethrum extract were published in 1924.Based on these facts it was possible to initiate chemical synthesis of synthetic analogs.This led to a decline in the share of natural pyrethrins on the world market (Crombie, 1980).Cultivation of pyrethrum was abandoned despite the high quality of its genetic material in later years.The world's production center moved to areas of East Africa, mainly Kenya (1930), and Rwanda (1950), and to Ecuador.Kenya was the world's main producer of pyrethrum in 1945 and it still is.For the purpose of selecting new clones, seed was introduced to Kenya from Dalmatia between 1995 and 1997.
Wild growing Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium (Trevir.)Vis. was considered hypothetically extinct in some areas of the former Czechoslovakia.Today there are not any current botanical records of this naturally occurring species in Slovakia or its extinct forms.There was some verification of possibly efficient pyrethrum production based on different ecotypes of this plant species and some efforts in Slovakia to design a production technology with regard to optimum drug yield.Five ecotypes of Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium (Trevir.)Vis. and one ecotype of Chrysanthemum parthenium (L.) Smith (syn.Pyrethrum part., Tanacetum parth.)were tested in different size plots, 0.5-0.4-0.3 m x 0.3 m, on an alluvial soil in the climatic conditions of Eastern Slovakian Lowland in 2005.The average yield of the most productive ecotype of Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium (Trevir.)Vis. was 1056.3 kg.ha -1 of dry floral anthodium (drug) and 870.1 -1023.9-1275.0kg.ha -1 considering crop density.According to crop density, other productive ecotypes had the average drug yields of 860.5 kg.ha -1 and 695.4 -851.9 -1034.3kg.ha -1 .Both of the best productive ecotypes of Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium (Trevir.)exceed with their production the world's average best vintage (Tóth, 2011).These ecotypes have a potential to be highly lucrative crops with economic results in the range of 413-1071 € (Table 3) because this annual crop could achieve 1.5 % content of pyrethrum in dry drug and a reasonable price of 4 $.kg -1 of dry drug.Labor cost is the principal item in our own costs calculation.This item consists of harvesting by hand with its efficiency calculated for the dry drug in the range of 1.4 to 2.1 kg per hour.Intensive growth of productive ecotypes needs further research and progress focused on innovative solutions for agricultural engineering elements, including the harvesting, as well as for food crops relation to pyrethrum content in the drug and also for breeding.The yields of the less productive ecotypes of Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium (Trevir.)Vis. were 355.8 kg.ha -1 and 114.7 kg.ha -1 .These ecotypes are inappropriate for intensive growing in agro-environmental conditions in Slovakia but they may be appropriate for extensive production excepting the ecotype production of 2.5 kg.ha -1 dry drug.
The average yield of the tested ecotype of Chrysanthemum parthenium (L.) was 253.1 kg.ha -1 dry floral anthodium and 231.9 -245.5 -281.9 kg/h according to crop density.This ecotype is appropriate for extensive production in Slovak agro-climatic conditions and it has some specificity compared with Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium (Trevir.)Vis.The positive aspect is its easily accessible and less costly genetic material.The negative aspects are higher demands, required labor for harvesting two to four times smaller flowers, lower pyrethrum contents in the appropriate drug, and reduced marketing feasibility.
Table 3 shows an analysis of prospects for a domestic production of pyrethrum.According to SWOT analysis (Table 4, Figure 1) it could take a course towards an offensive strategy for Slovakian pyrethrum production.The offensive strategy is the most attractive option.It is suitable for conditions in which strengths prevail over weaknesses and opportunities over threats.To utilize the strengths and opportunities offered by the sector a long-term strategic decision is required based on tactical and operational measures with medium-to short-term time frame.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.The offensive strategy as a result of SWOT prospects for Slovak pyrethrum production

Table 1 .
Global scope of harvest areas, yields and weight production of pyrethrum in the periods1961-2004  and 2005-2010, annually

Table 2 .
Pyrethrum world imports and the most important European importers, 2006 Source: by COMTRADE

Table 4 .
SWOT analysis of prospects for Slovak production of pyrethrum W -weight, V -value, F -force