From an industry of family companies, in which the owners knew each other, it became an industry of giant conglomerates, the result of mergers and acquisitions, in which executives change rather quickly.

It changed the personal character of the business, sometimes not for the best. It’s not easy to build trust and loyalty in such an industry. On the other hand, the big advantage of this phenomenon was its strong impact on the acceleration of R&D due to the large investments, made possible by the size of the new players.

More and more emphasis is put today on seed quality and almost all companies pay great sums of money to companies whose expertise is the enhancement of seed quality.

Competition has become much stronger than it used to be, mainly because the life cycle of products became (and still becomes) shorter.

The last thing I observed is the fact that the produce market has become much more segmented and that there is a lot of room for novelties and innovative products. It’s an opportunity for many small companies, who have become very focused niche players.