China likely to become world's biggest seed market

 China is likely to exceed the United States and become the world's biggest seed market with a volume of 14.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2015, said a Chinese researcher last Sunday.

China currently ranks second with its crop seed market worth 65 billion yuan (10.5 billion U.S. dollars), said Liu Xu, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences at a forum prior to the 2014 World Seed Congress, which will open in Beijing on Monday.

China's seed industry has entered a rapid development period of commercialization with more than 100 breeding enterprises, which have their own research and development capabilities, said Liu.

The seed market in the United States is worth 12 billion U.S. dollars, or 26.7 percent of the world's market, according to 2012 data of the International Seed Federation.