Dupont Running Short On GM Corn Seed
25 January 2007 Erik Fyrwald, VP of agriculture for DuPont, said the Pioneer seed unit doesn’t have enough supply to meet demand for triple-stacked biotech corn engineered with three benefits, including pest and herbicide resistance, but added that DuPont will have enough seeds to meet demand in 2008 and will halt its market-share erosion.
Bloomberg reports that DuPont is struggling to stop Monsanto from taking a bigger share of the US corn-seed market for a sixth year. Fyrwald was further cited as saying that about 10% of DuPont’s domestic supply has been modified to resist herbicide and two types of insects, but that 10% wasn’t enough to meet rising demand.
US farmers may devote 10% more acres to corn this year, the most since 1949, with another 5% increase in 2008, the American Farm Bureau said this month. Corn prices have almost doubled in the past year, and on Jan. 17 reached US $4.21 a bushel in Chicago, the highest since 1996.
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