Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., an E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Co. business, is well positioned to take advantage of agricultural growth in Eastern Europe, said DuPont Vice President and General Manager and Pioneer Hi-Bred President Paul Schickler when speaking at the Credit Suisse 2008 Global Agrochemicals Conference today.

“We expect rapid expansion in the high-growth Eastern Europe agriculture markets,” Schickler said. “Eastern Europe accounts for close to 60 percent of the corn acres in Europe, and our seed corn products are performing very well against competitive products. Our new sunflower and canola products also are well adapted for the area, and sales are growing rapidly.”

Pioneer has grown its seed corn market share for all of Europe by more than four points over the past five years, Schickler said. The Pioneer volume of seed corn has grown by 39 percent during that time; total hectares planted to corn have remained relatively stable.

Schickler said Pioneer, which had $3.3 billion in revenue in 2007 and is a key growth engine for DuPont, is extending its leadership in all international seed markets with particularly strong gains in Brazil and Argentina, where biotech crops are being adopted.

In North America, he said, the business is on track to hold corn market share and grow soybean seed market share in 2008. “We are seeing strong demand for our high-yielding products in North America,” Schickler said. “Our strong lineup of new products bode well for this year’s growing season and the years that follow.”