It was used to address scab on apples and pears, leaf curl in peaches, and anthracnose and blight in tomatoes.

The top five crops ziram is used on are: almonds, peaches, nectarines, pears, and table and raisin grapes.

The compound is a prototypical zinc dithiocarbamate, a broad class of coordination complexes with the formulae Zn(R2NCS2)2, where R can be varied.

Such compounds are produced by treating zinc and dithiocarbamate (R2NCS2−), as illustrated with dimethyldithiocarbamate:[4] Annually, approximately 1.9 million pounds of the active ziram ingredient are used.

Mono-zinc derivatives are obtained by adding strong ligands (L) such as amines, which give adducts Zn(S2CNR2)2L.