Shuffling the Variety Deck

Deltapine had the most popular varieties planted in the U.S. in 2011, claiming a market share of 30.6%, up 5% over 2010, according to the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service.

Bayer CropScience’s FiberMax varieties captured a market share of 26.9% in 2011, down about 12% from  2010. The major factor in the market share drop was the historic drought in Texas and the rest of the Southwest where FiberMax varieties were planted on nearly 66% of the acreage in 2010.

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But when Bayer’s Stoneville brand market share of slightly less than 10% is added to FiberMax’s, Bayer once again claimed the top spot with a combined share of 36.8%. The FiberMax varieties remained dominant in the Southwest with the top two varieties – FM 1740 B2F (11.06% market share) and FM 9170 B2F (10.94%).

Making a major move in 2011 was Dow AgroScience’s PhytoGen brand, coming in with 16.7% of the market, compared to 12.1% in 2010. With a market share of 10.67%, PhytoGen PHY 375 WRF was the nation’s most popular variety. It replaces FiberMax FM 9058, which had a 10.35% market share in 2010, then dropped to just over 2% this year – again a symptom of the extreme drought on the High Plains. PhytoGen now has the most popular Upland variety (PHY 375 WRF) and the most popular Pima variety (PHY 805 RF).

Americot also made a major move, increasing its market share from 6.2% in 2010, to 11% this year.

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As is usually the case, each company showed strengths and weaknesses according to geography. For example, Deltapine DP 0912 B2RF was the third most popular variety nationwide with a 7.04% market share, but was planted on 24.55% of the acreage in the Mid-South, making it the number one variety in that region. PHY 375 WRF, was planted on only 2.24% of the acreage in the Southwest, but was number two in the Mid-South (20.94%) and far and away the number one variety in the Southeast (22.07%).

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