Hybrid seed demand to rise on population - DuPont

30 May 2008 16:25  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--The world's population is expected to grow from 6.5bn to 9bn by mid-century, a trend that will cause demand to rise for higher yielding hybrid seeds, an executive from US producer DuPont said on Friday.

Global food production would need to double on the same amount of land that was currently in production, said Charles Holliday Jr, DuPont CEO.

"We have a rich pipeline of new products under development to enhance yield and nutrition through science and we are well-positioned in key global markets as more countries adopt biotech seed," Holliday said.

Demand for energy would also increase as emerging markets continued to develop, he said.

As such, demand for hydrocarbons would increase, potentially threatening the climate and the environment, he added.

DuPont expected more nations would rely on renewable energy sources as a result and the company forecast sales of photovoltaics (solar cells) to reach more than $1bn in the next five years, up from $300m, said Holliday.

In addition, the global market for cellulosic ethanol could be as large as $75bn, Holliday said, adding the company had formed a joint venture with Genencor, a division of Danisco, in this regard.

In other news, DuPont expected global demand to grow for its safety and security products. 

To meet expected demand, the company was increasing capacity for protective fibre Kevlar and Nomex, Holliday said.

For more discussion on biofuels see Simon Robinson's Big Biofuels Blog
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By: Al Greenwood
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