Corteva, Brevant, and the Pivot to Retail: A Potential Boost For Seed Sales?
May 18, 2020 Last week, Corteva made official a significant change in seed branding and market approach with the announcement that its Mycogen brand would be replaced by Brevant (pronounced Bruh-VAHNT) in the U.S. It was forged first in global markets, and will now have a home among domestic seed brands.
But the more intriguing change is how the seed will be sold: 100% via agricultural retailer.
When I first started covering this market 20 years ago, the relationship between seed sales and the distribution channel was a source of curiosity and frustration for me as I tried to understand it. In 1998, the intrinsic link between seed and inputs that was starting to take shape – what we called “seed systems” – was going to create a bright future for retailers. Back in those dark ages, we unleashed gallons of ink on print publications producing articles and special reports getting the retailers ready for the “seed revolution.”
Two decades later, seed has continued to chug along as a share of retail revenue, climbing from 9% in 2001 to 16% in 2019 among CropLife 100 Retailers but has been relatively stagnant for nearly a decade. By most accounts it hasn’t been easy or nearly as profitable as was hoped. As we moved through the first decade of the 2000s, many retail managers would quietly call seed a “necessary evil,” something they had to carry to stay meaningfully in the game.
Sure, it’s a great calling card for getting in to see farmers, and it keeps the farmer-salesperson relationship on the front burner for practically the entire year. And treating soybeans has delivered generally solid profits.
But the investment is significant: test plots and field days, constant training, storage, late decision making by farmers, order changes and replants, the incessant churn of varieties and hybrids, and mastering the intricacies of marketing programs and support from manufacturers have served to drain both energy and profit from seed.
A part of it too is the disparate approaches to market that seed takes, from farmer seedsmen to seed-only sales locations to the agricultural retailer. Even as seed has evolved through several generations of biotech traits and multiple trait stacks, many seed brands have continued to move through channels that evolved decades ago, based on relationships and personal trust.
I had assumed that growing complexity in seed and seed systems would shift the locus of sales rapidly toward the ag retailer, who would have the agronomic and economic resources to carry, support, and sell seed. But the evolution, while it is happening, has been excruciating.
Monsanto (now Bayer) went all-in with retail almost from the start, but the rest of the industry either stayed out entirely or danced in the margins, reticent to upset farmers who would likely punish any brand that would compromise their existing seed sales relationship.
So, from our perch above the distribution channel, Corteva’s shift to bring the newly branded Brevant seed line into the exclusive control of ag retail is a hopeful sign.
Loading ...I caught up with Jason Dodd, the brand lead for Brevant, to discuss the change. Dodd cut his teeth in ag retail in Iowa for seven years before joining Pioneer, and shifted to Mycogen/Brevant in the post-merger restructuring.
“One of the cornerstones of the launch of Brevant is that we are 100% focused on exclusively working with the retail route to market, says Dodd. “This is what our national retail partners have been asking for, in combination with the need to bring even more clarity in the routes to market we serve at Corteva. In recent years we worked closely with all of our national retail partners to design a true, complete alternative in the market that they were looking for.”
Mycogen had been migrating toward retail distribution for some time, but over last two years there’s been more transition as product performance and a broader portfolio from the emergence of Corteva have come together. “We’ve seen an uptick in folks that want to support our brand,” says Dodd.
Not only were retail partners asking for a complete portfolio as an alternative seed offering, he adds, “they have been asking to bring forward the business structure in a way they want to be supported, and that requires that our team is flexible and offers unique opportunities for each market, because each is very different.
“Secondly, they care that we have a team to support them, that we are experts on the products we sell to make sure they have all the information available when needed,” he explains. “Most retailers sell more than one brand, so we need to be in a position to help them balance across all of the products they sell not just seed.”
Dodd also stresses that Corteva’s crop protection and seed reps will work cooperatively with retail as it works to educate and build programs with retail partners in the weeks ahead. “With Brevant focused on retail, it makes it easier for us to partner with our crop protection counterparts,” says Dodd. “People can expect to see a more seamless approach across Corteva now that we are serving the same market together, and have the same priorities.”
We’re all looking forward to seeing how this plays out in the retail space, and hope it indeed leads to improvement for Corteva partners.
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