Strong North America Performance Validates Corn Market Share Gain for DuPont

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Nov 14, 2013, 08:00 ET

WILMINGTON, Del., Nov. 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- DuPont announced a gain of more than one point in North America corn market share for its Pioneer seed business and strong harvest results in 2013 – delivered through a competitive product lineup and innovative Decision Services that help growers to be more productive and profitable on every acre. Paul E. Schickler, president of DuPont Pioneer, will discuss the continued growth of the Pioneer business which has seen sales grow 11 percent year-to-date through September, as well as plans to extend its leading global position in seeds at the Morgan Stanley Global Chemicals and Agriculture Conference in Boston later today.

"Pioneer^® brand products, coupled with our industry-leading agronomic and technical support, delivered strong yield performance again on growers' farms this year, validating the more than one point gain we achieved in North America corn market share in 2013 based upon the November U.S. Department of Agriculture acreage report," said Schickler. "This year's harvest results demonstrate the strength of our product lineup with leading product offerings including Pioneer^® brand Optimum^® AQUAmax^® corn products, Optimum^® AcreMax^® insect control products and new T Series soybeans."

New Hybrid Lineups Create Value in Corn Business

"New genetic platforms in Pioneer corn product lineups continued to demonstrate strong performance. New products launched since 2011 are expected to comprise three-quarters of our 2014 product volume," said Schickler. "Our right product, right acre approach to developing, testing and placing seed is critical to grower success and has contributed to our increased corn market share in North America since 2008," said Schickler. "With the broadest corn product line-up in the industry, Pioneer has a solid foundation for continued growth."

Optimum^® AQUAmax^® corn hybrids, planted on 7 million acres in 2013, continued to perform rain or shine. In their third year of commercial sales, Optimum^® AQUAmax^® hybrids have been tested in an unprecedented 23,000 on-farm yield comparisons, leading to demand expected to exceed 10 million acres in 2014. Penetration of our integrated and reduced refuge Optimum^® AcreMax^® family of corn products also continued to grow in 2013, and these products are expected to comprise about two-thirds of corn unit sales in 2014.

Pioneer^® Brand T Series Soybeans Make Strong Debut

Launched for the 2013 growing season, Pioneer^® brand T Series soybeans delivered strong yield results for growers. Next year, 53 newly advanced T Series varieties are expected to comprise about one-third of North America soybean volume. After successful local testing in IMPACT^™ trials, 13 of the advanced T Series varieties will carry the Genuity^® Roundup Ready 2 Yield^® trait.

"Farmers saw improved yield results in 2013 with Pioneer soybean products," said Schickler. "We look forward to offering our customers more choices in 2014 – leveraging the strength of our new T Series varieties."

The business' North America soybean market share was about one point lower in 2013 following gains of over 10 points since 2008.

Delivering Whole-Farm Decision Services to Growers

Leveraging its unique route-to-market, DuPont Pioneer is an industry leader in providing next-generation agronomy and Decision Services to growers through an expanding field services team and utilization of new technologies. When yield monitors became commonplace on U.S. farms, Pioneer launched comprehensive field-by-field mapping services. As agricultural operations became more complex, Pioneer grew its whole-farm profitability services to include a real-time grain marketing platform.

In the last year, Pioneer worked one-on-one with customers to map more than 20 million acres of harvest and as-planted acres, and to implement more than 1.5 million acres of variable rate seeding prescriptions. Providing end-to-end services, Pioneer has connected about 8,000 grain sellers and buyers through the Farms Technology Dynamic Pricing Platform. Last week, John Deere and Pioneer announced a collaboration to allow growers to transmit field data wirelessly from Deere equipment to Pioneer^® Field360^™ Select software, offering unparalleled convenience and timely analysis.

"Our Decision Services are helping growers to maximize profits and minimize risk, while improving farm operation sustainability through science, technology and customer knowledge," said Schickler. "Decision Services will be an important part of the Pioneer business as we continue to leverage our genetic and agronomic expertise with our analytic capabilities and technology to deliver year-round production and farm management services."

DuPont's presentation slides are available on the Investor Center website at www.investors.dupont.com.

DuPont Pioneer is the world's leading developer and supplier of advanced plant genetics, providing high-quality seeds to farmers in more than 90 countries. Pioneer provides agronomic support and services to help increase farmer productivity and profitability and strives to develop sustainable agricultural systems for people everywhere. Science with Service Delivering Success™.

DuPont (NYSE: DD) has been bringing world-class science and engineering to the global marketplace in the form of innovative products, materials, and services since 1802. The company believes that by collaborating with customers, governments, NGOs, and thought leaders, we can help find solutions to such global challenges as providing enough healthy food for people everywhere, decreasing dependence on fossil fuels, and protecting life and the environment. For additional information about DuPont and its commitment to inclusive innovation, please visit www.dupont.com.

Forward-Looking Statements: This news release contains forward-looking statements based on management's current expectations, estimates and projections. All statements that address expectations or projections about the future, including statements about the company's strategy for growth, product development, market position, expected expenditures and financial results are forward-looking statements. Some of the forward-looking statements may be identified by words like "expects," "anticipates," "plans," "intends," "projects," "indicates," and similar expressions. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Many factors, including those discussed more fully elsewhere in this release and in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by DuPont, particularly its latest annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly report on Form 10-Q, as well as others, could cause results to differ materially from those stated. These factors include, but are not limited to changes in the laws, regulations, policies and economic conditions, including inflation, interest and foreign currency exchange rates, of countries in which the company does business; competitive pressures; successful integration of structural changes, including restructuring plans, acquisitions, divestitures and alliances; cost of raw materials, research and development of new products, including regulatory approval and market acceptance; seasonality of sales of agricultural products; and severe weather events that cause business interruptions, including plant and power outages, or disruptions in supplier and customer operations. The company undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements as a result of future developments or new information.

The DuPont Oval Logo, DuPont™, The miracles of science™, Science with Service Delivering Success®, Optimum®, AQUAmax®, AcreMax®, IMPACT™, Field360™, EnClass® and Pioneer® are trademarks or registered trademarks of DuPont or its affiliates.

Herculex^®Insect Protection technology by Dow AgroSciences and Pioneer Hi-Bred. Herculex^®and the HX logo are registered trademarks of Dow AgroSciences LLC. Genuity^®, Roundup Ready^®, Roundup Ready 2 Yield®, YieldGard^® and the YieldGard Corn Borer design are registered trademarks of Monsanto Technology LLC used under license. Liberty^®, LibertyLink and the Water Droplet Design are trademarks of Bayer. Agrisure® is a registered trademark of, and used under license from, a Syngenta Group Company. Agrisure® technology incorporated into these seeds is commercialized under a license from Syngenta Crop Protection AG.

SOURCE DuPont