Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
relatively smaller pharmaceutical investments after 2000 and 2001,
respectively, and Dow had already sold its pharmaceutical subsidiary Marion
Merrell Dow to Hoechst in 1996.
3)
Agricultural chemicals have been an important part of product sales
for all the Big 6 companies. However, positions in markets for nonag-
ricultural chemicals have not remained constant, with some compa-
nies shedding these nonagricultural products. Monsanto divested this
portion of its business to Solutia in 1997.
When Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz merged to form Novartis in 1996,
nonagricultural chemicals were spun off to Ciba Specialty Chemicals, which
eventually was acquired by BASF.
In response to antitrust considerations, Bayer sold selected insecticides
and fungicides to BASF in 2003. DuPont sold its polymers business in the
early 2000s.
Despite the common features in structural changes in the current Big 6,
these and other former large multinational seed companies have followed
somewhat individualized trajectories. Three of the current Big 6 were already
identified as industry leaders 7 to 10 years ago: Monsanto, DuPont/Pioneer,
and Syngenta (or Novartis) (Shoemaker et al., 2001; Fernandez-Cornejo,
2004). But several other potentially large players a decade ago no longer exist.
Aventis Crop Science was acquired by Bayer in 2002, giving Bayer a position
in the seed/biotechnology industry. Astra-Zeneca's seed business became part
of the Advanta Seed Group, but Advanta's seed enterprise was broken up with
parts acquired by Syngenta, Limagrain, and others in 2004 and 2005.
Monsanto has transformed itself most completely, from a chemical
company to a seed/biotechnology company, and made by far the greatest
number of large acquisitions of seed and related companies. Although
Monsanto still has significant sales of the herbicide glyphosate, its research
investments in chemicals are markedly reduced. Syngenta maintains a strong
position in crop protection as well as in seed, but in contrast to its legacy
companies, it is a wholly agricultural company. DuPont made by far the
largest acquisition of all when it absorbed Pioneer, at the time the world's
largest seed company, in 1999.
14
DuPont/Pioneer, however, has acquired only
a few other seed or biotechnology firms since the merger. Dow was also
recognized for its biotechnology investments a decade or more ago,
particularly since it purchased Eli Lilly's share in Dow Elanco in 1997 and
formed Dow Agrosciences. Though Dow Agrosciences has since acquired
regional seed companies, a large portion of its investment in
seed/biotechnology research has been in biotechnology. BASF has also
