DuPont pushes expenditures for new seed development

 

 

A new genetically-modified (GM) soy seed engineered by DuPont is making fast inroads with farmers and comes as the company is increasing spending on new seed development, a top DuPont official said on Tuesday.

 

DuPont  executive vice president James Borel said the Y Series soy will likely account for two-thirds of the company's North American soy sales this year, up from one-third in 2009.

 

Borel oversees DuPont's production agriculture businesses, including corn and soy seed developer Pioneer Hi-Bred.

 

The new soy, which has shown to out-yield competitive varieties by as much as 10%, marked the largest product launch in Pioneer's 83-year history, and is part of a new product line-up that DuPont hopes will help boost soy yields by 40% by 2018.

 

DuPont's market share in soy in North America stands at roughly 26%, Borel said, and was projected to edge up this year.

 

He said seed price increases this year would be modest, held to the "mid-single digits" on average, though he declined to provide specifics.

 

In addition, he said the company was focusing on building volume over price for the Y Series soy seed.

 

DuPont, which is battling Monsanto Co. for market share in specialised GM seeds, will increase its research and development spending between now and 2012 by "a couple of percentage points" above the expected 10% rate of sales growth, Borel said. This year, DuPont spent more than half of its US$1.4 billion R&D budget on agriculture and nutrition.

 

Borel said DuPont was seeking out additional collaborations in Africa, the Philippines, China and elsewhere to be a leader in rapidly expanding food production around the world as the population soars.

 

DuPont announced in February an alliance in sub-Saharan Africa to collaborate on development of higher-yielding corn varieties that need less fertiliser. That follows a similar programme aimed at developing healthier biotech African sorghum.