More Close Cooperations in Agri-Biotechnology between Agro Enterprises in 2013

Cooperation has always been one of the important business activities of global agrochemical enterprises, through which enterprises can obtain financing support, advanced technology, management expertise and distribution channel. Cooperation not only promotes resource sharing on a win-win basis but also helps each other to enhance competitive edge to the best interests of each other. Sometimes companies are arguing with each other about a patent or proprietary right, which may even end up in the court, but an argument does not necessarily affect their cooperation in some other fields, as their changeable business relationship is prevailed by the needs of company’s development strategy. On the other hand, the elevated strength of the whole industry as a result of cooperation has upgraded the competition between industry players, and in return the improved level of competition drives a rapid development of the industry.

The inter-company cooperation of global agrochemical enterprises in 2013 has been growing vigorously. AgroPages made a summary of the worldwide important cooperation in marketing and technical research activities between agrochemical enterprises in 2013, which is outlined herewith in 3 categories – the 6 global agrochemical multinationals, the generic agrochemical leaders and miscellaneous.

The Leading Multinationals

The top 6 multinationals were still most active ones in respect of cooperation compared with other companies; their partner of cooperation can be multinationals or other non-multinationals. As multinationals are equally strong and are in direct competition for their respective product and market, so there has been not much inter-multinational cooperation. Instead there are more cooperation between multinationals and non-multinationals, mainly due to the change of structure of the world agrochemical market. The emerging new business sectors would force the old-line gaints to get adapted to the changing industry; and cooperation with a professional player in a certain industry enables them to step into the new sector rapidly. Additionally compared with the professional companies in the new sectors, multinationals as a late comer need to have the technical support of professional companies, as well as to rely on companies who are present earlier in the market to support the distribution of new product.

The cooperation between agrochemical enterprises has distinctive features. Over recent years including 2013, multinationals have decreased their cooperation in crop protection field but have cooperated more frequently in agro biotechnology like transgenic trait development, commercialization, marketing and seed related business, mainly because global crop protection is developing slowly, development of new compounds is becoming difficult day by day and intense competition is imposing serious impact to multinationals. On the other side, agro biotechnology has been growing dramatically. The most prominent example is Monsanto, who started to reduce its crop protection business several years ago and switched to development of GM crops; the rest of multinationals also started this process over the last years, trying to catch up with this development.

Global Generic Agrochemical Companies

In 2013, the several major generic players appeared to be relatively conservative in respect of inter-company cooperation, where cooperation was limited to product distribution channels. A couple of relatively active companies include Arysta, Makhteshim Agan, Gowan and Isagro. Besides, these generic companies are also trying collaborations in certain new sectors.

Other Companies

Besides multinational giants and leading generic companies, cooperation and deals of the other companies were also active and abundant in forms. Strong distribution capabilities of Engage made it get a lot of companies' favor in 2013. Engage Agro obtained exclusive distribution rights of two biopesticides from Marrone Bio Innovations: GRANDEVO bio-insecticide and Regalia PTO. In addition, Nippon Soda appointed Engage Agro as their exclusive distributor for ASSAIL Insecticide in Canada. FMC was involved in R&D of biopesticide via cooperation with Mexican companies Quimica. A number of Indian companies and research institutions showed great interests in the research and development of biotech crops.

Big 6 Multinationals

Syngenta
• agreed scientific research partnership focused on Rothamsted’s Wheat BBSRC Strategic Programme
• agreement with Isagro for the supply and distribution of BADGE WG® fungicide in European countries
• appointed Fairbanks Seeds as the exclusive distributor of its leafy and brassica vegetable genetics portfolio
• cooperated with INCOTEC to offer first seed treatment insecticide spinosad
• expanded Soybean Cyst Nematode research collaboration with Evogene
• gains access to Caprotec’s proprietary Capture Compound Mass Spectrometry technology
• sign licensing agreements with DuPont for new fungicide solutions
• signed a commercial agreement with Three Rivers Energy on Enogen trait technology
• signed a cooperation agreement with IRRI for the second phase of the Scientific Know-how and Exchange Program (SKEP II)
• signed market development agreement with Ceres to promote the use of both sweet sorghum and high biomass sorghum at Brazilian ethanol mills
• teams up with Arysta LifeScience India to market Kinsta fungicide in India
• to exclusively distribute Stockton’s Timorex Gold fungicide in Chile and Mexico

Bayer CropScience
• announced a collaboration with the Florida Specialty Crop Foundation to create a three-year grant program for citrus greening research
• announced an innovative partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to help small-scale farmers increase agricultural productivity in Ukraine
• Bayer and AGI introduced the STORM seed treatment applicator
• Bayer and IVCC introduce deltamethrin spray, alternative to DDT, for malaria control
• extended collaboration with University of Nebraska to develop new soybean varieties
• gained heat and drought tolerance technology for wheat improvement licenses from Performance Plants
• Precision BioSciences, Bayer CropScience announce successful cotton genome engineering project
• reached collaborative research agreement with Caprotec Bioanalytics to identify and elucidate a tractable agrochemical target using caprotec’s proprietary CCMS
• sign investment agreement with Fundecitrus for combating HLB
• signed a wheat germplasm and technology license agreement with Kansas State University
• signed agreement with Biotrigo Genetica to expand their successful cooperation on wheat breeding
• signed agreement with KeyGene to improve traits in wheat, oilseed rape, rice and cotton etc.
• signed agreement with Monsanto for next-generation and enabling technologies in the field of plant biotechnology
• signed agreement with Nature Source Genetics to expand their cooperation on soybean germplasm
• signed agreement with Northstar Agri Industries on InVigor L252 Canola hybrid
• to market Veritas developed by Plant Impact in key Brazilian soybean-producing regions
• Trinean and Bayer CropScience sign a global agreement on biomolecule quality control
• works with MS Technologies to market a new soybean trait called Balance GT

BASF
• BASF and Agriculture Victoria Services launch new system to help Australian farmers control barley weeds
• BASF and John Deere form soybean disease-fighting incentive program, which combines Priaxor fungicide from BASF and spray nozzle from John Deere
• BASF and Monsanto plan to commercially launch a drought-tolerant variety of GM corn in the US in 2014
• BASF and Nidera join to keep developing seed treatment
• BASF Canada and Monsanto Canada team up again for improved weed management
• Euralis Semences and BASF sign Clearfield Plus sunflower licensing agreement
• John Deere and BASF plan to jointly develop sustainable yield enhancement solutions
• license Clearfield Plus herbicide tolerance for sunflowers to MayAgro in certain countries in Europe

Dow AgroSciences
• announced data technology agreement with John Deere
• announced wheat breeding collaboration with the University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre
• Dow AgroSciences, the Department of Primary Industries of the State of Victoria and Sangamo BioSciences announced the achievement of a unique state-of-the-art platform for the improvement of canola and wheat varieties
• Evotec and Dow AgroSciences collaborate on Cellular Target Profiling
• partners with Arysta LifeScience to launch insecticide Closer 500WG in Vietnam
• reached new cross-licensing agreements with Monsanto for creation of the next generation of advanced weed and insect control technology in corn
• signed choline hydroxide supply agreement with Taminco
• signed worldwide, exclusive fungicide co-development, commercialization agreement with Meiji Seika

Monsanto
• announced a long-term strategic alliance with Novozymes to transform research and commercialization of sustainable microbial products
• expanded long-standing collaboration with Valent U.S.A. in Roundup Ready PLUS Weed Management Solutions
• extended and expand R&D collaboration with Evogene on identifying key plant genes
• extended crop protection collaboration with AMVAC
• MANA extends its Roundup Ready PLUS residual herbicide agreement with Monsanto
• Monsanto and leading grower organizations in Brazil reached an agreement to support the introduction of next-generation products like INTACTA RR2 PRO soybeans
• Monsanto Appoints Sinochem as Sole Roundup Distributor in Australia, New Zealand
• NDSU, Monsanto sign wheat agreement on sharing resources, wheat genetics and wheat breeding technology tools
• Nimbus Discovery and Monsanto announce collaboration for developing broad-spectrum fungicides
• reached licensing agreements with DuPont on soybean technologies

DuPont
• DuPont Pioneer and Bunge North America announced to double acreage in 2014 of Pioneer brand soybeans with the Plenish high oleic trait
• DuPont Pioneer and John Deere announce data share agreement, delivering near real-time field level data to growers
• DuPont Pioneer and Perdue to double Plenish high oleic soy program
• DuPont Pioneer worked with Arcadia Biosciences to develop enabling technology to help manage pollen flow in sorghum
• DuPont Pioneer, ADM to double the acreage for 2014 Plenish high oleic soy program with the intention of marketing the high oleic soybean oil for use by the food industry in 2015
• DuPont Pioneer, Mendel Biotechnology announce collaboration to evaluate and commercialize new gene leads for increased water use efficiency and improved photosynthesis in corn
• Evogene announced the extension and expansion of its multi-year research collaboration with DuPont Pioneer for developing soybean varieties displaying resistance to Asian Soybean Rust
• Precision BioSciences and DuPont Pioneer announce publication of plant genome engineering success

Leading generic companies
• Arysta LifeScience and Laboratoires Goëmar announced the conclusion of two agreements to develop and distribute biostimulants and biocontrol products
• Arysta LifeScience gained distribution rights from Chemtura for crop protection products in West Africa
• Arysta LifeScience signed a partnership with the Brazil Soybean Strategic Committee aiming to increase productivity and sustainability
• Arysta, Cheminova form partnership on Fortix fungicide
• Gowan and Isagro announced a partnership to marry Isagro’s research and discovery capability with Gowan’s field development and face to market
• Gowan USA announced to take over the distribution of certain strategic products from Isagro USA
• Isagro and Cheminova signed agchem commercial agreement in Spain
• Isagro giving Arysta LifeScience exclusive global rights to develop mixtures of tetraconazole and fluoxastrobin for all agricultural markets
• Makhteshim Agan and Starpharma collaborate in Priostar dendrimer technology
• Makhteshim Agan and Yissum Partner announced to develop a novel bio-control agent for protecting plants
• PHC and Arysta LifeScience signed a Product Development and License Agreement for use of Plant Health Care’s proprietary Harpin alpha beta technology
• Starpharma partnered with Gowan on Priostar agrochemical
• Vive and AMVAC collaborated to develop and market insecticide formulation

Other Companies
• 36 private Indian seed companies signed MoU with Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University to obtain rights for producing and marketing seed of yellow disease resistant wheat variety WH-1105
• Alta Seeds, Right Coop Association signed distribution agreement
• Arcadia Biosciences, the African Agricultural Technology Foundation and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture announced the successful completion of field trials of Nitrogen Use Efficient rice in Colombia
• Danforth Center uses FuturaGene’s plant yield technology for crop development
• De Sangosse and Biopreparaty signed exclusive agreement for exclusive development and distribution of Polyversum
• East-West Seed and Seminis announced strategic collaboration in Indonesia
• Elsoms Seeds, Nordsaat Saatzucht and Saaten-Union Recherche launched a new wheat breeding collaboration aimed at the UK wheat market
• Engage Agro Canada appointed by Marrone Bio Innovations as the exclusive marketer and distributor of GRANDEVO bioinsecticide in Canada
• Engage Agro USA reached an agreement with Marrone Bio Innovations to be the exclusive marketer of Regalia PTO
• Engage Agro will be the exclusive marketer and distributor for select Taminco products in Canada
• EngageAgro USA entered into an exclusive distribution agreement with Marrone Bio Innovations for its Grandevo PTO bioinsecticide product in the U.S
• Evogene and Rahan Meristem announced successful field trial results in their joint program to develop banana varieties expressing tolerance to Black Sigatoka
• FMC entered into a research and development collaboration agreement for several proprietary biological pesticides from Quimica Agronomica de Mexico
• FMC entered into an agreement with Belchim Crop Protection granting an exclusive license to develop and sell the patented fungicide valifenalate in key global markets
• FMC signed an exclusive and global collaboration agreement with Chr. Hansen and acquired the Center for Agricultural and Environmental Biosolutions Assets
• Futureco Bioscience has signed as a member of Biovegen, the Technology Platform on Plant Biotechnology
• INCOTEC Europe and ELSOMS Seeds signed agreement for the next step in intensifying the collaboration between both companies
• INCOTEC, Agroscope Ukraine signed sales agreement on seed treatment
• KeyGene and Donald Danforth Plant Science Center collaborated to strengthen plant phenotyping activities
• KeyGene and GENALICE collaborated in speeding up plant DNA analysis
• Longping High-Tech entered into an agreement with the Republic of Surinam where Longping High-Tech is going to establish a comprehensive agricultural park to deploy its hybrid rice
• Nippon Soda appointed Engage Agro as their exclusive distributor for ASSAIL Insecticide in Canada
• Nuseed Americas and Archer Daniels Midland Company collaborated to deliver premium sorghum products
• Performance Plants and Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company entered into a commercial license agreement, giving Mahyco exclusive rights for three technology platforms in various key crops
• Punjab Agricultural University entered into a strategic partnership with Gujarat State Seed Corporation aiming at developing and commercializing cotton transgenic hybrids
• Terramera entered into a distribution agreement with Univar USA to distribute its CIRKL products
• The Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation and the University of Campinas become partners to develop within five years drought-resistant seeds
• The Grains Research and Development Corporation is partnering with the Western Australian Government to deliver key new grains research worth about $25 million
• The National Corn Growers Association and FMC Agricultural Products are working together to provide a new, free weather service benefit for NCGA members in conjunction with Blue Water Outlook
• TyraTech, Novartis Animal Health signed global distribution agreement of biocide products
• United Suppliers and Vive Crop Protection collaborate to demonstrate and market advanced formulation technologies in the US
• Valent U.S.A. will manage the marketing and sales of Pace International’s pre-harvest line within the US
• Verdeca and GDM Seeds collaborated to develop and commercialize stress-tolerant soybeans
• Vilmorin & Cie SA and KWS intensified their collaboration in the development of GM traits for corn seed

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