Dynamic Changes in Market Structure and Competition in the Corn and Soybean Seed Sector

William Wilson and Bruce L. Dahl

No 58487, Agribusiness & Applied Economics Report from North Dakota State University, Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the dynamics of R&D investments, and the structure of the seed distribution sector using novel data sets that have not been used before to describe competition in these industries. The results describe four sets of issues of particular importance. One is that while all agbiotechology firms have increased their R&D expenditures, there have been sharp differences in the scope of this spending. Most important is that this has spawned the growth in what is now referred as “seeds and traits.” Second, a large number of future traits will be commercialized in the coming years. A third set of results indicates that one firm grew its market share by 14% and a portion of this growth has been through acquisition. The other three majors lost market share, but the ISC (independent seed companies) grew by 10%. At the crop reporting district level, the industry concentration ratios for the four largest firms (CR4) in most regions are .5‐.7. Finally, farmers purchased corn and soybean seed from 4‐7 different companies in most crop reporting districts (CRD) and up to 20 or more companies in the larger producing regions.

Keywords: Agribusiness; Crop Production/Industries; Demand and Price Analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33
Date: 2010-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com and nep-tid
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/58487/files/ae%20staff%20paper%20_2_.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:nddaae:58487

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.58487

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Agribusiness & Applied Economics Report from North Dakota State University, Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().