Dive Brief:
- Monsanto Co. currently has the edge over Dow Chemical Co. in terms of licensing deals for the two companies' next generation of soybean seeds.
- In the seed industry, it's common for companies to license each other's products, but Dow recently lost two rivals, DuPont Co. and Syngenta AG, who don't plan to enlist Dow's Enlist soybean seeds.
- This lowers Dow's market opportunity to 25% of U.S. soy acres at most, according to a JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst, reports Bloomberg.
Dive Insight:
Monsanto has seen many soybean successes lately, including topping earnings predictions with higher soybean sales in its first fiscal quarter 2015. Also last month, the USDA approved strains of Monsanto's GMO soybean and cotton seeds.