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Who are the major players in the sorghum seed industry, globally, and what is their market share?
Hello, and thank you for your request for a list of the major players in the global sorghum seed industry, as well as market share information. The most useful sources were WiseGuys and Global GY Research. In short, we have found a list of ten top players in the global industry, including Pioneer, Dow AgroSciences, Allied Seed, and Dyna-Grow. As many of the companies in this industry are privately held or do not break out their financials to the granularity of seed variety, we have determined that the market share for most is not publicly available, nor can the data be triangulated. The exception to this is Advanta, which states (as of 2014) that it holds 26% of the global sorghum seed market. A deep dive of our research is below.
GLOBAL MARKET SIZE AND GROWTH
A recent WiseGuys report on the global sorghum seed market says that the industry is valued at $2,657.24MM as of 2017. It is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.39% through 2022. We can then calculate the market value as predicted to be $3,294.01MM in 2022 where 2,657.24(1+.439)^5=3,294.01. This growth will be driven in part by demand for sorghum in the pet food industry, as well as an increased demand in China. Sorghum is also increasingly being used as a biofuel and in alcoholic beverages. The paid version of the report provides additional breakdowns as to the percentage of US sorghum being used in biofuels.
WiseGuys reports that "Africa is the largest sorghum seed market, followed by North America, South America, Asia-Pacific and Europe. The United States is the net exporter of sorghum and exports half of its production." The report goes on to say that 14 states grow sorghum, with Kansas, Texas and Colorado being the largest producers.
MAJOR PLAYERS
The major players in the sorghum seed market were identified by a 2017 WiseGuys report, as well as a late 2016 report by Global GY Research. As revenue data is not available for all companies, we selected the first ten from the Global GY report, assuming that they had identified those as among the largest producers of sorghum seed. Pacific Seeds, one of those ten, is actually owned by Advent, thus we did not list it separately. We instead added Nuseeds to the list, a company ranked as one of the major players by WiseGuys.
I have outlined the ten companies below, and provided as much information as could be found regarding financials. Only one company publicly states its market share (Advanta). The balance of the companies either are private and thus do not report financials, or their annual reports do not present revenues by product line. I have included revenue information where available, and outlined what that number represents in each listing.
Dupont Pioneer and the other Agricultural products of Dupont USA account for 40% of total company sales, or $9.516BN of net sales, according to Dupont USA's 2016 Annual Report. While the report doesn't break out Sorghum seeds specifically, they say 2016 net sales by the Agricultural product group were as follows: Corn Seeds (47%), Other Seeds (9%), Soybean Seeds (14%) and Insecticides/ Herbicides/ Fungicides (30%). If we assume that Sorghum is a part of the "Other" category, we can assume that that product line accounts for some portion of $8.56MM of Dupont USAs overall revenues (9%*9.516BN).
Dow's Agricultural Sciences division is focused primarily on crop protection, though the company's 2016 annual report reports production of canola, cereals, corn, cotton, range and pasture, soybeans, sunflower and other seeds. There is no specific mention of sorghum seed. The Annual Report shows the Agricultural Sciences Division contributed $6.174BN of the company's overall $48BN in 2016 profits.
Advanta US is listed by Owler as a private company. Its parent company, Advanta Seeds, is a public subsidiary of United Phosphorous Ltd.. Advanta Seeds also owns Pacific Seeds, another top producer of sorghum seeds.
The most recent annual report released on the Advanta Seeds website is from 2014. In that report, the company cites sorghum breeding programs in the US, Argentina and Australia and that their sorghum product "caters to grain, forage, and buy-fuel related requirements."
Allied Seed is a private company that produces grain sorghum and sorghum-sudangrass, a hybrid of sorghum and sundangrass.
Dyna-Gro is a brand of seeds sold by Agrium. Agrium's 2015 Annual Report (the latest available) shows that seeds (under the brand names Dyna-Gro and Proven) make up 23% of all retail sales for the company. The company does not specifically break out sorghum as a percentage of retail sales by crop type, though we can assume that it falls under the "Other" category, which accounted for an estimated 13% of retail sales. Retail seeds sales in 2015 accounted for 10%, or $284MM, of Agrium's total retail sales, which were $12,199BN.
Nuseed is a "wholly-owned subsidiary of Nufarm Limited," according to their website. The company produces canola, sorghum, and sunflower hybrid seeds. The sell a number of varieties of both grain and forage sorghum.
Hancock Seed Company produces sterile sorghum seed and four types of sorghum sudangrass seeds. As a private company, Hancock does not publish an annual report, nor were we able to find any sales data around their sorghum products.
According to the company website, "Chromatin is focused on sorghum." The company produces forage, grain and sweet sorghum and is privately held.
Chromatin has been actively involved in mergers, acquisitions and licensing agreements in the past year. WiseGuys notes the company's 2016 acquisition of Majestic Semillas (a sorghum seed distributor) and Kirkland Seed (a sorghum seed supplier). Also in 2016, "Chromatin signed an exclusive license agreement for unique sorghum genetic stocks developed by Agrigenetics Inc., an affiliate of Dow AgroSciences LLC," according to the report.
Sustainable Seed Company is privately held. Their website says they are "the only sustainably powered seed company." They sell three varieties of sorghum seed: Martin Milo Sorghum, Organic Rox Orange Syrup and Organic Sugar Drip Sorghum.
OTHER KEY PLAYERS
In addition to the companies listed above WiseGuys and GQYR note the following additional key players: Pannar Seeds, Heritage Seeds, La Crosse Seed, Blue River Hybrids, Safal Seeds & Biotech, Taj Agro International and Lindian Tianhong Zhongzi Company.
CONCLUSION
To sum it up, we have found a list of ten top players in the global industry, including Pioneer, Dow AgroSciences, Allied Seed, and Dyna-Grow. The only market share data provided by any of these companies was from Advanta, which stated that as of 2014, they held 26% of the sorghum seed market.
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