Corteva (NYSE:CTVA) has boosted its share of the market for soybean seeds in the United States to more than half, overtaking rival Bayer (OTCPK:BAYZF) (OTCPK:BAYRY), The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
The rivalry between the two companies has played out patent fights and in marketing their products to growers. Corteva (CTVA) in 2019 introduced a soybean-and-spray combination called Enlist E3 to take on Bayer’s (OTCPK:BAYZF) (OTCPK:BAYRY) Xtend, and later XtendFlex, soybeans that are resistant to an herbicide called dicamba.
Corteva’s (CTVA) 2,4-D choline weedkiller doesn’t evaporate off of crops and drift in the wind as dicamba does, according to studies and field work by university agricultural researchers, the Journal reported.
Enlist this year will be used for at least 55% of soybeans planted in the U.S. this year and may reach more than 60% next year, Corteva (CTVA), which was spun out of DowDupont (NYSE:DD) in 2019, said to the Journal.
Bayer (OTCPK:BAYZF) (OTCPK:BAYRY) plans to introduce a biotech soybean called HT4 in 2027 that will be the first to resist five different weed-killing chemicals, the company said.