The newly established venture, Dunhuang Seed Pioneer Hi-Bred Company Ltd, will provide corn seed and high-yield corn hybrids to Chinese farmers.

With total registered assets of eight million US dollars, the venture is 49 percent owned by Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc, a subsidiary of DuPont, and 51 percent owned by Dunhuang Seed.

It will produce seed in 2007 for sale in 2008.

This is DuPont's second joint venture in China. China is the world's second largest corn producer with 62.5 million acres planted.

Gansu province produced over 400 million kilos of corn hybrids in 2005, over half the country's total.

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