Con sede en EE. UU. Monsanto Co. announced that it would increase seed prices up to 10% overall next year even as it holds certain “workhorse” hybrid seed prices flat for farmers unwilling to pay premiums for the company’s genetically modified (GM) seed technology, according to Reuters.
“We have to have a balanced approach,” said Monsanto Chief Financial Officer Carl Casale. “You’ve got to continue to acquire new customers.” Casale said 2010 price increases would range from 8% to 10% across the portfolio on average, although some seed prices would be held flat as part of an effort to give farmers a broader choice.
Monsanto has implemented double-digit price increases over recent years on its popular GM corn and soybean seed technology that help farmers maximize yields and efficiencies. Monsanto officials said that they were introducing for the first time a strategy to hold prices flat for certain seed offerings they described as “workhorses” — proven hybrids lacking some of the sophisticated new technology. Casale said the company did not correlate its seed pricing strategies with crop prices but rather with how much value the company thought it was providing the farmer.
Monsanto informó un desempeño mixto de participación de mercado de híbridos en 2009, manteniéndose plano con muchas de sus marcas y pasando de 41% a 39% para su Deltapine semilla de algodón. La compañía dijo que sus rasgos genéticos de maíz se plantaron en 70,6 millones de acres estadounidenses en 2009 y 85,7 millones de acres en todo el mundo. Los rasgos de soja se plantaron en 73,2 millones de acres estadounidenses en 2009 y 159,5 millones de acres en todo el mundo.
Monsanto planea introducir al menos un producto nuevo cada año durante los próximos siete años, dijeron las autoridades.