The use of fungicides to provide effective economic control of plant diseases has been an integral component of crop production systems since their widespread introduction from the 1940s onwards. Despite industry having been very successful in discovering and bringing new fungicides to the market over the past 80 years, the need in the market for continued innovation and new differentiated solutions is still significant. Fungicide discovery and development remains a highly regulated, technically complex, costly and time consuming exercise. Fungicides will remain a vital component of disease control programs within modern agricultural production systems for the foreseeable future. However their development and use within agronomic production systems will likely need to be adapted and grounded within a more holistic and sustainable system of food production driven by consumer demand and regulatory agency mediated government policy in many regions of the globe.