Submitted by ETC Staff on
Company Estimated 1996 seed sales (US) millions Comment
Pioneer Hi-Bred Intl. (USA) $1,721 Dupont now owns 20% share in Pioneer
Novartis (Switzerland) $991 formerly Ciba Geigy and Sandoz
Limagrain (France) $552 French cooperative; claims to be the world's largest vegetable seed company.
Advanta - joint venture of Zeneca/Van der Have (The Netherlands) $493 Zeneca and Royal VanderHave established joint venture in 1996. The name of their merged company is Advanta
Grupo Pulsar (Mexico) approx $400 Pulsar (a giant agro-industrial corporation) owns Empresas La Moderna (Mexico), which is majority shareholder of Seminis Inc.
Sakata (Japan) $403 vegetable/flower/turfgrass
Takii (Japan) $396 privately-held; vegetable/flower/maize/turfgrass
Dekalb Plant Genetics (USA) $388 Monsanto is a large shareholder (approx. 40%)
KWS (Germany) $377 world's largest supplier of sugar-beet seeds (25% market share)
Cargill (USA) + $300 (estimate) privately-held; will not disclose financial information
Source: RAFI
At a glance:
The top 10 companies control approximately 40% of the global commercial seed market, valued at approximately (US) $15 billion.
World's Top 10 Agrochemical Corporations - 1996
Company 1996 Sales (US) Million Comment
Novartis (Switzerland) $4,511 Acquired Merck & Co. crop protection unit for $910 million May 1997
Monsanto (USA) $2,997
Zeneca (UK) $2,638
AgrEvo (Germany) $2,475 Acquired Plant Genetic Systems International N.V. for DM 1 billion
Du Pont (USA) $2,472 DuPont acquired 20% of Pioneer Hi-Bred (world's largest seed corporation) in Aug. 97.
Bayer (Germany) $2,350
Rhone-Poulenc (France) $2,203
Dow Agrosciences (USA) $2,010
American Home Products/American Cyanamid (USA) $1,989 American Home Products is parent of American Cyanamid
BASF (Germany) $1,536
Source: RAFI
Based on information provided by Pesticide Action Network North America; Agrow: World Crop Protection News, and Inverizon Business Consultants.
At a Glance:
The top 10 agrochemical corporations accounted for $25.1 billion, or 82% of all agrochemical sales in 1996.
Global agrochemical sales were US $30.5 billion in 1996, up more than 15% since 1994.
According to Dr. David Pimentel of Cornell University, a total of 501 species of insects and mites are currently known to be resistant to at least one class of chemical pesticides.