Producer
Limagrain (Vilmorin & Cie; Groupe Limagrain)
Groupe Limagrain (Chappes, Puy-de-Dôme, France; cooperative structure owned by 1,750 French farmer-members; ~€2.4B seed revenue) is the world's 4th largest seed company and the largest seed company not owned by a public agrochem corporation. Limagrain operates through its Vilmorin & Cie subsidiary (founded 1743 — the world's oldest continuously operating seed company, predating the United States). In corn seed, Limagrain operates under Limagrain Cereal Seeds in Europe and the Warrensburg MO-based AgReliant Genetics (50% JV with KWS since 2000) in North America. Limagrain holds a significant share of the European corn seed market (~15-20% Europe) through its proprietary corn inbred germplasm adapted to temperate European conditions. Limagrain's cooperative ownership structure — the only top-4 seed company not owned by shareholders or a state entity — theoretically insulates it from the consolidation dynamics affecting Corteva, Bayer, and Syngenta. Limagrain's Vilmorin brand in corn (Europe) and the AgReliant partnership (US) represent the largest non-Big-4 presence in commercial hybrid corn globally.
1
Inputs supplied
1
Goods downstream
1
Facilities
0
Stories
What they make
1 input Limagrain (Vilmorin & Cie; Groupe Limagrain) supplies
Click an input to see every good that depends on it, every country that produces it, and every other company in the supply chain.
Where it shows up
Goods downstream
Essential goods that depend on something Limagrain (Vilmorin & Cie; Groupe Limagrain) makes, pick one to see the full supply chain.
What else they do
Business segments
The company's full revenue map, where this supply-chain role fits within their broader business.
Field Crop Seeds (Corn, Wheat, Sunflower)
45%Vegetable Seeds (HM.CLAUSE, Hazera)
40%Cereal Products (Limagrain Céréales)
15%
Intelligence
What's known
Sourced claims about this company's role in supply chains, chokepoints, concentration, incidents, dual-use connections.
Did you know2024
Limagrain is tracked in the seed supply chain as the world's 4th largest seed company, but it also owns Limagrain Céréales — a flour milling and cereal products division that includes the Jacquet bread brand (one of France's largest bread manufacturers) and industrial flour supply to French food makers. The farmer cooperative that breeds crop varieties for farmers also processes those crops into consumer bread products under its own brands. The agricultural genetics supply chain and the consumer packaged food supply chain are vertically integrated into the same French cooperative structure, meaning Limagrain competes with its own farmer-customers in the downstream food market while also supplying them seeds upstream.
Groupe Limagrain ↗Origin2023
Limagrain traces to two parallel histories: (1) the Vilmorin seed house, founded in 1743 in Paris by Philippe-Victoire de Vilmorin — one of the world's oldest continuously operating seed companies, whose 19th-century experimental gardens and catalogs were foundational to modern plant breeding; and (2) Groupe Limagrain itself, founded in 1965 as a farmer-owned cooperative in Chappes, Auvergne, which eventually acquired Vilmorin in the 2000s. The cooperative-owned structure makes Limagrain unique among top-tier seed companies — it is not owned by a publicly listed agrochem corporation (unlike Bayer/Monsanto, BASF, Corteva, ChemChina/Syngenta), giving it strategic independence in a highly consolidated industry.
Groupe Limagrain ↗