Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
However, in recent years, nearly all soybean seed in the United States has been purchased.
Cotton is also selfpollinating, but almost universal use of purchased seed in cotton began
much earlier than it did in soybeans.
10
Kalaitzandonakes et al. (2010) also analyze the pricing of different types of GM traits, either
individually or in combination. Much of the data analyzed by Shi et al. (2009, 2010a,
2010b) and by Kalaitzandonakes et al. suggest that component pricing is generally not
additive—that is, the price premium for seed containing two or more GM traits is not the
sum of the individual premium for the traits taken separately.
11
For the most part, the data presented by Shi et al. (2009; 2010a; 2010b) indicate slightly higher
estimates of the proportion of crop land planted to biotech crops, somewhat higher estimates
of the proportion of crop land planted to stacked varieties, and somewhat lower prices for
biotech crops than the NASS data.
12
BASF took a partial interest in Svalöf Weibull, a Swedish seed company, in 1998 but divested
in 2008. Svalöf Weibull changed its name to Lantmännen SW Seed in February 2010.
13
For example, between 2005 and 2010, Dow acquired or reached commercial agreements with
nearly 10 regional seed companies, both in the United States and elsewhere, whose primary
focus is corn (maize).
14
Dupont took an initial fi nancial interest in Pioneer in 1997 and took full ownership in 1999.
15
Estimates of seed market shares for the United States are generally not publically available,
although a private source is GfK Kynetec (formerly dmrkynetec). Using GfK Kynetec data,
an online Monsanto report traces the corn, soybean, and cotton seed market shares of the
largest integrated seed-chemical companies between 1997 and 2009 (see www.monsanto.
com/newsviews/Pages/monsanto-submission-doj.aspx). Another consulting company,
Context Network, also produces seed market share estimates, and one of its online reports
estimates corn seed market shares for leading companies for 2008 (see
www.contextnet.com/Focus%20Papers/Seed/Consolidation%20Direction%20Where%20an
d%20Why%20the%20Seed%20Industry%20is%20Headed%20Sieker%204%2008.pdf).
16
Generic fi rms are fi rms that do not conduct research on new trait discovery but rather focus
on commercializing varieties and traits that have gone off-patent. So far, generic fi rms are
virtually nonexistent in the crop seedbiotechnology industry, but they play an important role
in the agricultural chemical industry (see chapter 3).
17
We refer to these companies as “dedicated” agricultural biotechnology companies in that
agricultural applications appear to be the main market for their product development efforts.
Not included in this category are many other companies that may provide some technology
services to agriculture but whose main product focus is in other economic sectors. Names of
these companies are available from the authors upon request.
18
Marker-assisted breeding is an indirect process in which selection for a trait of interest is based
on a genetic or other marker associated with the trait, but not the trait itself.
19
In table 2.3, we include research expenditures by legacy companies that also conducted both
agricultural chemical and seed-biotechnology research as part of the Big 6. These include
AgrEvo, Astra-Zeneca, Aventis, Ciba-Geigy, Novartis, and Sandoz.
20
Le Buanec's estimates of biotechnology research as a percentage of total seed-biotech research
in 2003 are as follows: Monsanto 80 percent; Dupont/Pioneer 50 percent; Syngenta 60
percent; BASF 100 percent; Dow 85 percent; Bayer Crop Science 85 percent; and
Limagrain 10 percent. Applied to our estimates of research expenditures in 2003, this
implies an estimate that about 70 percent of all Big 6 seed research was devoted to
biotechnology in 2003, with the rest of our estimates based on the assumptions listed in the
text. The overall estimate of 50 percent may be roughly the same today, or even higher, as
