Technical grade is the active ingredient as it comes out of synthesis, usually at high purity. A formulation is the finished product: that active mixed with solvents, carriers, surfactants and other additives so it can be measured, diluted and sprayed.
Technical is an industrial raw material sold to formulators. Formulations are sold to distributors and farmers under a registered label. The two are bought, tested and regulated in different ways.
Technical grade
A technical, often written TC (technical material) or TK (technical concentrate), is described by its minimum active content and its impurity limits. Purity is usually stated as grams per kilogram or as a percentage. Many technicals are solids, but some are liquids or oils.
What matters most is the impurity profile. Two technicals at the same purity can carry different impurities, and some impurities are toxicologically relevant. This is why regulators ask for a five-batch analysis and why generic sources must show equivalence to a reference source. See what a five-batch analysis is and equivalence testing.
Technical usually ships in fibre drums, HDPE drums or bags, by the tonne. Each lot should come with a certificate of analysis that reports active content and the key impurities, not active content alone. The buyer is normally a formulator who holds or is seeking product registrations.
Formulations
A formulation is designed for safe handling, stable storage and good performance in the spray tank. Its label states the active content, often in grams per litre for liquids or as a percentage for solids. Common types include EC, SC, WP, WDG and SL, explained in agrochemical formulation types.
Formulations are judged on physical properties as well as active content. Emulsion stability, suspensibility, particle size and storage stability all decide whether the product works in the field.
A formulation also contains co-formulants, which some regulators review in their own right. Certain solvents and surfactants are restricted or banned in some markets. Ask for the full recipe under a confidentiality agreement, and check each co-formulant against your country's rules.
Which one should you buy?
The choice depends on what you hold and what you can do in your own country.
- Buy technical if you run a formulation plant and hold, or are building, registrations for your own formulations.
- Buy formulation if you sell finished product and your registration covers a product made by a named overseas source.
- Buy both from one plant only if it makes the technical itself, so the source in your dossier stays the same.
Why the source of the technical matters
In most countries the registration ties the product to a specific manufacturer and site. Changing the technical source can mean new data and a new approval, so choose carefully at the start. Check this with your regulator before you switch suppliers.
This is also why a formulation made from bought-in technical carries extra risk. If the formulator changes its technical supplier to save cost, your registered source has changed without your knowledge. Ask every formulator to name its technical source in writing, and to tell you before it changes. Make this a clause in your contract.
Next step
We find plants that make the technical themselves, check their dossiers and have batches tested. Book a free sourcing review to talk through your product.