China likely to become world's biggest seed market

BEIJING - China is likely to exceed the United States and become the world's biggest seed market with a volume of $14.2 billion in 2015, said a Chinese researcher on Sunday.

China currently ranks second with its crop seed market worth 65 billion yuan ($10.5 billion), said Liu Xu, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences at a forum prior to the 2014 World Seed Congress, which will open in Beijing on Monday.

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

The seed market in the United States is worth $12 billion, or 26.7 percent of the world's market, according to 2012 data of the International Seed Federation.

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