Gowan Company has entered China’s potato fungicide market with Yishashuang, its first benalaxyl formulation for the country, combining benalaxyl-M with mancozeb to provide both systemic and contact protection against late blight.
The launch marks the formal introduction of benalaxyl-M to the Chinese market by Gowan, which developed the active ingredient and was the first company to commercialise a formulation containing it. The product is registered in China under registration number PD20190050 for controlling late blight in potatoes.
Yishashuang contains 69 per cent mancozeb and benalaxyl-M in a water-dispersible granule formulation. The combination brings together two different modes of action, designed to give growers both protective and curative activity while supporting disease management under conditions that can accelerate pathogen development.
Benalaxyl-M acts systemically, targeting pathogen RNA polymerase activity and interfering with ribosomal RNA synthesis, thereby disrupting fungal growth. It also provides activity against zoospores and mycelia. Mancozeb, a long-established protective fungicide, acts through inhibition of pyruvate oxidation. Together, the two active ingredients are intended to provide complementary disease-control activity and make resistance development more difficult.
That resistance-management proposition is particularly relevant to potato late blight, where disease pressure can rise rapidly under wet and humid conditions. For growers, fungicide performance is not determined only by the initial level of disease control but also by how reliably a product holds up when rainfall creates repeated infection opportunities.
Gowan says Yishashuang has strong rainfastness under such conditions. According to the company, control efficacy remained at 76 per cent when rainfall occurred two hours after application, increasing to 84 per cent after four hours and 92 per cent after six hours.
The product’s positioning therefore goes beyond introducing another late-blight fungicide. By combining systemic and contact activity, Gowan is targeting one of the practical constraints of disease management in potato production: maintaining protection when rainfall and high humidity can quickly undermine fungicide coverage.
Benalaxyl-M has already been used in markets outside China across crops including grapes, lettuce, onions, potatoes and tomatoes. Its application has included the management of downy mildew, late blight and other oomycete diseases.
The China launch gives the active ingredient a new commercial market in one of the world's major agricultural economies, while potato late blight provides a specific entry point. The product will be distributed exclusively in China by Shanghai Yatai Agricultural Materials Co., Ltd., which will use its distribution network and agronomic service capabilities to support market development.
For Gowan, the launch also illustrates the commercial value of differentiated fungicide chemistry at a time when resistance management is becoming an increasingly important part of crop-protection strategies. Rather than relying on a single mode of action, the formulation combines benalaxyl-M with a conventional protectant to broaden disease-management activity.
The immediate opportunity for Yishashuang will be to translate that chemistry into consistent field performance across China’s diverse potato-growing conditions. Its rainfastness, systemic activity and dual mode-of-action positioning will be central to how the formulation is integrated into growers’ existing late-blight programmes.
