China likely to become world's biggest seed market in 2015: Report

BEIJING: China may surpass the US and become world's largest seed sales market with a volume of US $ 14.2 billion in 2015, a Chinese researcher said today.

"China currently ranks second with its crop seed market worth 65 billion yuan (US $ 10.5 billion)," said Liu Xu, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, ahead of 2014 World Seed Congress scheduled to be held here from tomorrow. China is likely to surpass the US and become the world's biggest seed market with a volume of US $ 14.2 billion in 2015, Liu was quoted as saying by the state-run Xinhua news agency.

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

The US ranks first, at US $ 12 billion, accounting for 26.7 per cent of the global seed market. China ranks second, at US $ 9.03 billion, accounting for 20.1 per cent of the global seed market, according to 2012 data of the International Seed Federation.