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“Essentially, hybridization is a traditional breeding process in which inbred lines are crossed to create seed varieties with greater yield potential than exhibited by either parent”. “From the perspective of the seed firms, hybridization had two commercial advantages. First, simple examination of a hybrid seed does not reveal its lineage, thus offering companies proprietary control over the seeds they develop. Second, the enhanced vigor of hybrid seed is not transmitted to its offspring, thereby requiring farmers to buy new seed every year to ensure continued vigor. Crops cultivated from seed saved from a hybrid crop grown in the previous year are typically less vibrant and significantly lower in yield”. Extracts from The Seed Industry in U.S. Agriculture: An Exploration of Data and Information on Crop Seed Markets, Regulation, Industry Structure, and Research and Development , J. Fernandez-Cornejo, 2004, U.S. Department of Agriculture - Agriculture Information Bulletin Number 786, p. 2, http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/aib-agricultural-information-bulletin/aib786.aspx#.Us02yvTuJ9A34. KWS, 2013 data for vegetables, maize and sugar beet,
http://www.kws.de/global/show_document.asp?id=aaaaaaaaaaffxwn; and
Impact assessment accompanying
the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the production and making available on the market of plant reproductive material,
European Commission, May 2013,
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_consumer/pressroom/docs/proposal_aphp_ia_en.pdf35. Philip H. Howard,
Visualizing Consolidation in the Global Seed Industry: 1996-2008
, Sustainability journal, 2009, 1, 1266-1287, Basel.
http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/1/4/1266/pdf36. Commission staff working document:
impact assessment accompanying the document proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the
council on the production and making available on the market of plant reproductive material
, European Commission, May 2013, Brussels, p. 32,
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_consumer/pressroom/docs/proposal_aphp_ia_en.pdfConcentration in the EU crop seed markets
Focusing on the market share, the information available from companies and public institutions shows that
the seed markets for economically important crops as maize, sugar beet and vegetables have undergone a
considerable level of concentration. In the first two cases, of maize and sugar, this is connected to the capacity
of the industrial scale seed companies to produce hybrid varieties of those crops
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. In the case of maize, just
5 seed companies have around 75% of the EU market share. In the case of sugar beet, just 4 companies own
around 86% of the market and 8 companies own 99% of EU market
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. In the vegetable sector for example, the
agro-chemical/seed company Monsanto already controlled around 24% of the EU market after its acquisition of
company Seminis in 2005
35
.
According to the European Commission,“Vegetable seeds are mainly multiplied outside the EU in a wide range
of countries in which labour costs are lower than in the EU. The produced seeds are shipped to the EU, mainly
to the Netherlands, for treating, sampling and packaging and re-exported to their final destination in the EU or
outside the EU. The production has a value of about
€
1 billion. The main producers are FR, IT, NL, HU DK and
PL.The five biggest companies have 95% of the seed market.”
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This is an astonishingly high level of concentration, contrary to claims that there is no concentration in the EU
market so the vegetable seed market is in fact not at all highly diversified.
This is connected to the big investments that industrial scale seed companies, in particular agrochemical
corporations such as Monsanto and Syngenta, have made to create new hybrid varieties in many vegetables,
but especially tomatoes.
A lower degree of concentration can be seen in cereals
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because there are no good hybrids of wheat, the largest
cereal market, and farmers can easily reproduce farm-saved seeds and find productive non-hybrid conventional
seed on the market
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. However in recent years, some companies (Limagrain, KWS and RAGT) have gained large
market shares in this sector
39
. For example, Limagrain is the largest wheat seed producer in the world and owns
around 16.5% of the EU-27 market share
40
. More information can be found below on the specific section on the
EU wheat seed market.
“
The five biggest companies control 95%of the EUvegetable seedmarket
”
European Commission impact Assessment
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