Overseas Giants Infiltrate Domestic Maize Seed Industry

Longping Hi-Tech (000998) announced yesterday that the company has signed a framework agreement with Vilmorin Hong Kong Limited to establish a joint venture contract. The two parties will jointly invest 200 million yuan to establish a joint venture company in China. The joint venture will focus on the cultivation, production and marketing of hybrid Corn seeds. This means that Longping Gaoke officially entered the corn seed industry.

The overseas seed giants of Long Ping Gaoke's marriage are just one of the many overseas seed giants who have seized the Chinese seed market. The overseas seed giants have excellent seeds and, through cooperation with the domestic seed industry giants, it is possible to gradually squeeze the market share of the original seed companies in the country. Some people worry that if the domestic seed industry cannot speed up R&D, master the actual control of the joint venture, and let the current situation develop, the seed industry in the future may be controlled by overseas seed giants.

The development of corn seed VHK is a holding subsidiary of Vil-morin & Cie Group, which in turn is a 72%-owned subsidiary of the French Limagrain Group. It is one of the world's largest seed industry groups, and its dominant product is hybrid corn. Wheat seeds and oil seeds. Its seed research institute in Shanxi has been established for ten years. Recently, the maize varieties of the institute have matured and passed relevant certifications, and were approved for sale on the market. In May 2010, Longping Hi-Tech won the exclusive rights to develop Lima 16 developed by Limagrain.

Chang Yang Securities analyst Qiao Yang believes that after the establishment of the joint venture, Vil-morin & Cie Group may license the joint venture company to use its technology, which will ensure that the company has excellent sources of corn varieties.

Affected by this, Longping Gaoke opened on the 10th with a one-word cap limit, closing at 36.68%. Driven by this trend, the seed industry sector has seen a red roar across the board. The growth rates of Bengbu Silver and Denghai Seed are all above 5%.

Earlier, Longping High-Tech, which had an advantage in rice seeds, began to force its way into the corn seed field last year. On January 5, 2010, Longping Hi-tech Co., Ltd. subscribed for the new capital of Beijing Tunyu Seed Industry Co., Ltd., a holding subsidiary of Shanxi Tunyu, for 36 million yuan, and thus held 60% of Beijing Tuen-yu's capital contribution.

Beijing Tunyu corn seed sales volume is 15 million kilograms, which exceeds the 10 million kilograms sold by Longping Hi-Tech. This will allow Longping High Tech to become the first group army to sell corn seeds.

In April 2010, Longping Hi-Tech Co., Ltd. appointed Liu Shi as president of the company. Liu Shi served as president of China DuPont Pioneer Liangpin International Co., Ltd. from 2001 to 2009. During his term of office, the Xianyu 335 corn plant of DuPont Pioneer Co., Ltd. cooperated with Denghai Seed Industry and Dunhuang Seed Industry was successfully promoted in China, bringing huge profits to the two listed companies.

However, in November 2010, Longping Hi-Tech Co., Ltd. increased its capital in Beijing Tunyu, and then the plan to control Shanxi Tunyu was unsuccessful. Longping Hi-Tech transferred its 60% stake in Beijing Tunyu to Shanxi Tunyu. This also motivated the Longping Hi-Tech Group to expand the focus of the corn seed industry on international cooperation.

The fierce battle in the domestic market and the development of the corn seed industry are considered to be the most fierce competition in the domestic seed industry and the largest space.

In China, corn is an important food crop that is second only to rice. The annual sown area and yield account for 22% and 25% of grain, respectively. According to the "Maize Advantage Area Layout Plan" (2008-2015), from 2003 to 2007, the increase in the total corn output contributed more than 44% to the country's grain production increase, ranking first in the major grain crops. Correspondingly, the maize production industry has a larger space for production than other grain varieties.

Sun Xia, an analyst at Guohai Securities, believes that the gross profit rate of corn seed is higher than that of other grain seeds, which also leads seed companies to compete in this field. At present, the gross profit rate of corn seeds is generally 30%, and the gross profit rate of fine varieties such as Xianyu 335 is over 60%. Far higher than the gross margin of rice and other grain species.

Maize seed industry is also the most competitive. According to a researcher at the Crop Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Qin Pingya revealed that at present, 90% of China's seed companies are engaged in corn operations. The market share of large-scale seed companies accounts for only about 30%, and most of the seed market share is scattered among SMEs.

According to the draft of the "Administrative Measures on Crop Seed Production and Management Permits" issued by the Ministry of Agriculture on December 31, 2010, the registered capital of hybrid rice and corn seed enterprises has been raised from 5 million yuan to 30 million yuan, and seed enterprises that implement integrated operations have been implemented. The registered capital was raised from 30 million yuan to 100 million yuan.

Analysts pointed out that if the solution is implemented, 90% of the country's more than 8,700 seed companies are expected to be eliminated. The resulting market space will be filled by large seed companies.

According to the ranking of China Seed Association in October 2010, the top five companies include Longping High-tech, Liaoning East Asia, China Seed Group, Beijing DeNong and Denghai Seed Industry. Among these companies, Longping High-Tech has weak corn seed.

Hu Jianjun, an analyst at Hongyuan Securities, believes that the seeds of competition in the corn seed industry are the key. Whoever has excellent seed varieties, coupled with an excellent management team, will have an advantage in market competition. This is also the purpose of Longping Hi-Tech's appointment of Liu Shi and the joint venture VHK.

According to relevant persons from the Longping High-Tech Securities Office, the “Lihe 16” corn is a temperate species in the fourth quarter, and the main promotion areas are Heilongjiang, Hebei, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Jilin. The sale of "Lihe 16" is starting to operate under the team led by Liu Shi.

Longing Hi-Tech's "Lihe 16" overlapped with the sowing scope of Xianyu 335, a pioneer in Dunhuang, a joint venture subsidiary of Dunhuang Seed Industry. The encounter battle between the two sides will be inevitable. The success of Xianyu 335 came from Liu Shi’s leadership.

Seed giants have taken the spotlight in the international seed industry giants that have appeared in the domestic seed industry competition. According to relevant regulations, the international seed industry needs to establish a joint venture company with a domestic seed company to produce and sell grain seeds in China, and the Chinese company shall control the joint venture subsidiary company.

In 2002 and 2006, the US seed industry giant DuPont Pioneer successively established a joint venture with Denghai Seed Industry and Dunhuang Seed Industry to engage in seed production and sales of Xianyu 335. It is the area around the Huanghai-Huaihuan Bohai Sea; the owner of the Dunhuang seed plant, the spring planting seed, is planted in the three northeastern provinces of Inner Mongolia, Hebei, and Xinjiang.

In 2007, VHK entered the Chinese market through the transfer of 46.5% of the shares of Long Da Tech, a major shareholder of Long Ping Gaoke.

Hu Jianjun revealed that in addition to the above two international seed giants, the top five seed industries including Syngent have established joint ventures in China.

The joint venture company has brought huge profits to domestic seed companies. In 2009, Dunhuang Seed Industry realized a sales income of 1.512 billion yuan, a total profit of 138 million yuan, and a net profit of 30.224 million yuan attributable to shareholders of the parent company. During the reporting period, Dunhuang Pioneer, a joint venture between Dunhuang Seed Industry and DuPont Pioneer, realized a net profit of 218 million yuan, which contributed a profit of 111 million yuan to the company. In 2009, Denghai Pioneer, a joint venture between Denghai Seed and DuPont Pioneer, realized a net profit of 185 million yuan, which contributed 94 million yuan to the net profit of Denghai Seed Industry, accounting for 101% of the net profit of Denghai Seed Industry of that year.

However, analysts worry that with the growing influence of the international seed industry giants, the control over China’s agricultural production will also gradually increase, which in turn threatens China’s food production security.

Corn tastes Sweet, bland ,and can used for both food and feed.It has   strong diuretic , detumescent, cholagogic and hemostatic effect, and can promote bile secretion. It also can cure diabetes and high blood pressure , hypertension, jaundice hepatitis and cholelithiasis, nephritis oedema and ascites of liver cirrhosis and other adverse symptoms of urination.

Corn

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