Although China's vegetable seed industry has witnessed huge development in the past years, the development of vegetable seed treatment is slow in China. The treated vegetable seed accounts for less than 10% of the total vegetable seed consumed in China. Domestic market of vegetable seed treatment has the following characteristics:
- The seed treatment rate of vegetable seed is very low at present and the major method applied by domestic seed companies is film-coating. Pelleting and encrusting are in the promotion stage and both are seldom used.
- Seed treatment rate of imported vegetable seed is much higher than that of domestic vegetable seed. Most of the imported vegetable seeds are film-coated before they are imported.
- Some domestic seed companies exaggerate the function of seed treatment.
Film-coated seeds are thought to be high-grade seeds by farmers. However, advantages of vegetable seed treatment are not fully recognized. Some farmers still soak the film-coated seed before sowing.
- Some domestic film-coating agents only beautify the seed without any practical functionality, as exposed by some insiders. The poor quality of domestic-made film-coating agents impacts on the germination percentage of vegetable seed.However, it is expected that vegetable seed treatment will develop quickly in the future, which can bring many business opportunities to Chinese vegetable seed treatment industry. The driving factors include the follows:
- Supply increase of treated vegetable seeds;
- Development of new seed treatment method;
- Breakout of soil-borne diseases;
- Development of mechanical sowing and industrial seedling;
- Industry integration of vegetable seed companies.

Main Contents
Executive summary 1
Methodology 3
1 Vegetable planting situation (2006-2010) 6
1.1 General situation of vegetable planting 6
1.2 Planting of tomato 7
1.3 Planting of lettuce 10
1.4 Planting of spinach 13
1.5 Planting of pepper 15
1.6 Planting of onion 18
1.7 Planting of melon 20
1.8 Planting of carrot 23
2 Vegetable seed market 27
2.1 General situation of vegetable seed market 27
2.2 Seed market of tomato 28
2.3 Seed market of lettuce 30
2.4 Seed market of spinach 32
2.5 Seed market of pepper 33
2.6 Seed market of onion 34
2.7 Seed market of melon 36
2.8 Seed market of carrot 39
3 Seed treatment by crops 41
3.1 Overview 41
3.2 Seed treatment for tomato 41
3.3 Seed treatment for lettuce 43
3.4 Seed treatment for spinach 45
3.5 Seed treatment for pepper 46
3.6 Seed treatment for onion 47
3.7 Seed treatment for melon 48
3.8 Seed treatment for carrot 50
4 Vegetable seed production 52
4.1 Vegetable seed production (major bases, scale) 52
4.2 Seed treatment situation 53
4.3 Seed export and its seed treatment situation 54
5 Industrial seedling 56
5.1 Industrial seedling situation 56
5.2 Key industrial seedling companies 57
5.3 Seed treatment situation for industrial seedling 58
6 Development of seed processing companies 61
6.1 General situation 61
6.2 Key companies 61
7 Forecast on vegetable seed treatment 63
7.1 Key factors for the development of vegetable seed treatment 63
7.2 Forecast on vegetable seed treatment 65
8 Opportunities and recommendations 67
8.1 Opportunities 67
8.2 Advice for oversea company doing business in China 68
9 Appendix: Profile of key vegetable seed companies in China 70
9.1 Dong Fang Chia Tai Seed Co., Ltd. 70
9.2 Beijing Sihai Seed Co., Ltd. 70
9.3 Beijing Shinong Seed Co., Ltd. 70
9.4 SAKATA Seed (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. 71
9.5 Beijing Yuzhengtai Seed Co., Ltd. 71
9.6 Beijing Honor Agricultural Development Co., Ltd. 71
9.7 Xinjiang Nongren Seed Technology Co., Ltd. 72
9.8 Syngenta Seeds China Co., Ltd. 72
9.9 Known-You Seed (China) Co., Ltd. 73
9.10 Seminis Seeds (Beijing) Co., Ltd. 73
9.11 Beijing Zhongshu Horticultural Seed Research Center 73
9.12 Yuan Longping High-Tech Agriculture Co., Ltd. 74
9.13 Nunhems Beijing Seeds Co., Ltd. 74
9.14 Shouguang South Australia Luheng Agricultural Co., Ltd. 75
9.15 Bejo Zaden B.V. 75
9.16 Hebei Xingda Seed Industry 76
9.17 Shandong Days Smooth Hua Nursery Stock Company 76
9.18 Changchun Dafunong Seedling Technology Co., Ltd. 76
9.19 Beijing Jingyan Yinong Sci-Tech Development Center 77
9.20 Sichuan Xichang Kewei Seeds Co., Ltd. 77
9.21 Clover Seed Company Limited 78
9.22 Choi Hing Lee Seed Co., Ltd. 78
9.23 Crops Research Institute Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences 78
9.24 Beijing Shenghua Defeng Seeds Co., Ltd. 79
9.25 Ha Limu Seed Co., Ltd. 79
9.26 Xi'an Jinpeng Seed Co., Ltd. 79
9.27 Rijk Zwaan China Seed Co., Ltd. 80
9.28 Hazera Genetics Agricultural Technology Service (Beijing) Co., Ltd. 80
9.29 Hefei Fengle Seed Co., Ltd. 81
9.30 Shanxi Dongsheng Seed Co., Ltd. 81

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1.2-1 Key processing tomato planting areas in China, 2011
Table 2.2-1 Price of major tomato seed in China, 2010
Table 2.2-2 Price comparison of main tomato seeds at home and abroad sold in China, 2010
Table 2.3-1 Mainstream retail price of lettuce seed produced by Chinese manufacturers
Table 2.3-2 Price of major lettuce seed in China, 2010
Table 2.4-1 Price of major spinach seed in China, 2010
Table 2.5-1 Price of major pepper seed in China, 2010
Table 2.6-1 Price of major onion seed in China, 2010
Table 2.7-1 Price of major watermelon seed in China, 2010
Table 2.7-2 Price of major melon seed in China, 2010
Table 2.8-1 Price of major carrot seed in China, 2010
Table 3.2-1 Proportion of film-coated tomato seeds of key players in China, 2010
Table 3.4-1 Proportion of film-coated spinach seeds of key players in China, 2010
Table 4.1-1 Main seed production bases of vegetable & melon seeds in China, 2010
Table 4.1-2 Major vegetable & melon seeds production companies in China, 2010
Table 4.3-1 Major export destination of Chinese vegetable seed (except watermelon), 2007-2010, tonne
Table 5.2-1 Key industrial seedling companies in China, 2010
Table 7.2-1 Forecast on seed demand volume and film coating proportion of main vegetable & melon seeds in China, 2010-2015

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.1-1 Vegetable planting area in China, 2006-2010
Figure 1.1-2 Greenhouse vegetable planting area in China, 2006-2010
Figure 1.2-1 Planting area of tomato in China, 2006-2010
Figure 1.2-2 Planting area of processing tomato in Xinjiang, 2007-2011
Figure 1.2-3 Major planting bases of tomato in China, 2010
Figure 1.3-1 Planting area of lettuce in China, 2006-2010
Figure 1.3-2 Major planting bases of lettuce in China, 2010
Figure 1.4-1 Planting area of spinach in China, 2006-2010
Figure 1.4-2 Key planting areas of spinach in China, 2010
Figure 1.4-3 Major planting bases of spinach in China, 2010
Figure 1.5-1 Planting area of pepper in China, 2006-2010
Figure 1.5-2 Major planting bases of pepper in China, 2010
Figure 1.6-1 Planting area of onion in China, 2006-2010
Figure 1.6-2 Major planting bases of onion in China, 2010
Figure 1.7-1 Planting area of watermelon in China, 2006-2010
Figure 1.7-2 Major production bases of watermelon in China, 2010
Figure 1.7-3 Planting area of melon in China, 2006-2010
Figure 1.8-1 Planting area of carrot in China, 2006-2010
Figure 1.8-2 Major planting bases of carrot in China, 2010
Figure 2.2-1 Tomato seed demand in China, 2006-2010
Figure 2.3-1 Lettuce seed demand in China, 2006-2010
Figure 2.4-1 Spinach seed demand in China, 2006-2010
Figure 2.5-1 Pepper seed demand in China, 2006-2010
Figure 2.6-1 Onion seed demand in China, 2006-2010
Figure 2.7-1 Watermelon seed consumption in China, 2006-2010
Figure 2.7-2 Melon seed consumption in China, 2006-2010
Figure 2.8-1 Carrot seed demand in China, 2006-2010
Figure 3.2-1 Seed treatment situation of tomato in China, 2010
Figure 3.3-1 Seed treatment situation of lettuce in China, 2010
Figure 3.4-1 Seed treatment situation of spinach in China, 2010
Figure 3.5-1 Seed treatment situation of pepper in China, 2010
Figure 3.6-1 Seed treatment situation of onion in China, 2010
Figure 3.7-1 Seed treatment situation of watermelon in China, 2010
Figure 3.7-2 Seed treatment situation of melon in China, 2010
Figure 3.8-1 Seed treatment situation for carrot in China, 2010
Figure 4.1-1 Major vegetable seed production bases in China, 2011
Figure 4.3-1 China's vegetable seed export situation (except watermelon, volume and value), 2008-2010
Figure 7.1-1 Average per capita net income of rural residents in China, 1990-2010