December 13, 2024

Corteva positive about Enlist E3 soybean seeds taking 30% share in Brazilian market

Indianapolis, US-based Corteva Inc., which spun off from DowDuPont, expects its Enlist E3 soybean seeds to grab a significant market share in Brazil.

"We don't see any reason why we couldn't have 20% or 30%" of Brazil's soybean acres by the end of the decade, according to Corteva chief executive officer Chuck Magro.

The country is the world's largest producer of the commodity used to produce chicken feed and truck fuel. Brazil's farming sector has seen rampant acreage expansion, emerging as a key growth driver for suppliers of seeds, pesticides, and fertilisers. Producers there have planted 117 million acres of soybeans this year, compared with roughly 87 million acres in the United States.

Corteva will be licensing its Enlist E3 technology to other seed suppliers as part of efforts to foster growth. "It will be a key part of our seed-out licensing strategy," Magro said in an interview at Bloomberg's New York, US office.

Corteva's seeds, which allow farmers to spray crops with pesticides including glyphosate and 2,4-D choline, have captured almost two thirds of the US market since being introduced in 2019, according to the company. Its rate of adoption is still negligible in Brazil, where the system has been available for only a few seasons.

The company will run up against challenges in Brazil, where soybean growers are heavily reliant on a competing technology marketed by Bayer AG.

- Bloomberg