Frost & Sullivan releases the 'White Paper on China's Molecular Breeding Industry 2025'

The agricultural industry chain refers to the entire process from the source of agricultural production to the sale of end products, including multiple links such as seed research and development and breeding, supply of agricultural machinery and equipment, cultivation and planting/raising, processing of agricultural and sideline products, and market sales. This chain covers the upstream, midstream, and downstream of agriculture, presenting the key path for the high-quality development of modern agriculture.

As the source and foundational link of the agricultural industry chain, seed industry is hailed as the 'chip' of agriculture, playing an irreplaceable and important role in ensuring food security, increasing agricultural product yield and quality, and promoting agricultural technological innovation. High-quality seeds are a prerequisite for achieving stable and high yields, cost reduction and efficiency improvement, as well as green development. The innovation capability and self-control level of the seed industry directly determine the comprehensive competitiveness of agriculture. Therefore, developing a strong and efficient seed industry system is key to building the resilience and vitality of modern agricultural industry chains. Currently, the industrial breeding of most species in China is in the transition phase from breeding 2.0 to breeding 3.0.

Data source: Analysis by Frost & Sullivan

Molecular breeding refers to the method of breeding new germplasms or varieties with specific excellent traits, based on modern molecular biology and genetics. It utilizes techniques such as DNA molecular markers, gene sequencing, gene mapping, transgenic technology, and gene editing to identify, manipulate, and precisely improve the genetic information of organisms.

Compared with traditional breeding, molecular breeding has the characteristics of short cycle, high efficiency, precision, controllability, and the ability to handle multiple gene complex traits. It is an extension and upgrade of traditional breeding.

Molecular breeding can be used for crop breeding, with typical improvement goals including increasing crop yield, enhancing disease resistance, stress tolerance, and improving crop quality. Molecular breeding can also be applied to animal breeding, with typical improvement goals including improving animal growth rate, enhancing feed conversion efficiency, disease resistance, meat/egg and milk quality, and reproductive performance.

Data source: Analysis by Frost & Sullivan

The upstream link is the foundational support for molecular breeding, covering areas such as germplasm resource collection and preservation, gene cloning and functional validation, development of genotypic and phenotypic identification technology systems, and suppliers of experimental consumables and equipment. The core work of this link is to provide high-quality original germplasm materials, precise molecular detection tools, efficient technical platforms, and experimental equipment to the mid- and downstream processes. It serves as the 'foundation' and technical source of the entire industrial chain, playing a key role in ensuring germplasm diversity and promoting molecular technology progress, and holds a strategic and fundamental position.

The midstream segment is the core innovation and R&D area of molecular breeding, mainly composed of various breeding entities including universities and breeding institutions, commercial seed companies, breeding livestock and poultry farms, and joint breeding platforms, as well as specialized CRO institutions such as genotype testing service providers and integrated breeding service providers. This segment undertakes R&D work from target trait screening, parental material construction, molecular marker development to variety selection and gene editing. It is a key link in improving breeding efficiency and producing scientific and technological achievements, playing the role of an 'R&D engine' and holding a core position characterized by technology intensity and high added value.

The downstream link is the stage of transforming molecular breeding achievements into market applications, mainly including the approval and registration of new varieties, as well as seed breeding, processing, and promotion institutions. This link is responsible for the large-scale seed breeding, processing, and market promotion of newly developed varieties after they have been approved and registered through standardized procedures. It serves as the 'last mile' connecting technological innovation with agricultural production and holds a key position in transforming key achievements and acting as a bridge between them.

Data source: Analysis by Frost & Sullivan

From 2020 to 2024, the market scale of China's molecular breeding industry grew from RMB 700 million to RMB 3 billion, with an average annual compound growth rate of 43.9%, demonstrating strong growth momentum. This growth benefits from strong support from national policies, the increasing reliance of breeding enterprises on molecular technology, and the deep advancement of agricultural modernization. It is expected that by 2029, the market scale of China's molecular breeding industry will further expand to RMB 200 billion, with an annual compound growth rate of 46.1% from 2024 to 2029, further accelerating the growth rate and maintaining a steady momentum.

Data source: Analysis by Frost & Sullivan

From 2020 to 2024, the market scale of molecular testing in China's molecular breeding industry increased from about 300 million yuan to 1.5 billion yuan, with an annual compound growth rate of 56.5%. Against the backdrop of policy promotion, technological updates, and continuously rising commercial demand, molecular testing is gradually transforming from a research tool into an indispensable standardization link in breeding processes. It is expected that by 2029, the market in this field will further expand to 10.6 billion yuan, with an annual compound growth rate of 47.9% from 2024 to 2029, showing a steady and progressive development trend.

Data source: Analysis by Frost & Sullivan

From a technical structure perspective, targeted sequencing genotyping technology occupies a dominant position in the molecular detection market due to its flexible customization and multi-marker compatibility, accounting for 50%. Microarray chip technology ranks second with a market share of about 25%, mainly used in high-density, high-throughput standardized detection scenarios. SNP typing technology and SSR detection technology account for about 15% and 10%, respectively, mainly used in conjunction with policy standard testing and small-scale experimental research. It is expected that by 2029, as detection demand shifts from 'scale-out' to 'diversification' and 'functionalization', targeted sequencing technology will further increase its market share to 69% due to its customizable nature, cost reduction, and diverse types of detectable markers. The industry continues to favor high-throughput, scalable, and functional detection solutions, with the new generation of detection technologies represented by targeted sequencing occupying a more central position in the future.

Data source: Analysis by Frost & Sullivan

● The pressure on food security and the strategic need for independent and controllable seed industry are increasing

China's per capita arable land area is less than 45% of the world average, yet it has to feed nearly one-fifth of the global population. Food security has always been the bottom-line thinking in national governance. Since 2020, 'winning the battle to turn over a new leaf in seed industry' has been included in the No. 1 Central Document and national security strategy. Efficient, precise, and controllable molecular breeding technologies are seen as the core path to break through the 'seed source bottleneck', helping to accelerate the iteration of excellent varieties, increase per unit area output, thereby alleviating food security pressure and achieving autonomous control over the seed industry.

● Policy-driven and continued fiscal investment

In recent years, China has continuously increased policy and financial support for molecular breeding. The 2021 National Agricultural and Rural Science and Technology Development Plan for the 14th Five-Year Plan period explicitly proposed the implementation of major scientific and technological projects in biotechnology breeding; starting from 2024, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs will continue to expand the 'genetically modified pilot' program and has clearly supported the construction of breeding platforms within special funds from central finance. According to incomplete statistics, since 2020, the national and local financial investment in biotechnology breeding has accumulated to exceed 50 billion yuan. Policy dividends have effectively promoted research institutions and enterprises to accelerate the construction of technology platforms and the transformation of research results.

● Breakthroughs in cutting-edge technologies drive a revolution in molecular breeding efficiency

The rapid development of technologies such as molecular marker-assisted selection, gene editing, and targeted sequencing has greatly shortened the variety breeding cycle. Taking traditional hybrid breeding as an example, it takes 8 to 10 years from selection to promotion of a new variety, while molecular breeding can reduce the cycle to 4 to 6 years or even shorter. Currently, the development of domestic molecular breeding CRO (Contract Research Organization) enterprises is rapid, and some leading breeding companies have widely applied genotyping technology to achieve 'precision mating', significantly improving breeding success rates and commercial conversion efficiency. Technological progress is the core internal factor driving the high-quality development of the industry.

● The intellectual property protection mechanism is becoming increasingly sound, stimulating R&D vitality

latest revised versionThe Seed Law of the People's Republic of ChinaThe 'Regulations of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of New Plant Varieties' were officially implemented in 2022 and 2025 respectively. The new version of the act explicitly introduces substantial derivative varieties (EDVProtection systems, infringement punitive compensation mechanisms, etc., have significantly enhanced the intensity of intellectual property protection in the seed industry. The R&D confidence of breeding enterprises has been significantly strengthened, and more companies are willing to invest funds in long-term R&D activities such as molecular marker development and germplasm resource improvement. The intellectual property system is gradually forming a moat for industry innovation.

As an innovative model that draws on the pharmaceutical CRO model in the field of breeding, Seed Industry CRO precisely addresses prominent pain points in China's seed industry, such as 'separation between research and production, weak corporate innovation capabilities, and core technology bottlenecks', through specialized division of labor. Its core logic lies in relying on economies of scale to intensively allocate equipment and personnel investment to reduce R&D costs, and by leveraging the technical accumulation of professional teams, it shortens the trial-and-error cycle and improves breeding efficiency. In response to the industry characteristics of long R&D cycles and high capital investment in seed industry, Seed Industry CRO provides full-process R&D outsourcing services from gene mining to field trials for seed companies. Seed Industry CRO has three major business models: 'Risk sharing, benefit sharing', 'VC+IP+CRO', and 'Single CRO'.

BoruiDi is an innovative technology company focusing on the development and application of molecular detection and breeding technologies for animals and plants. As a pioneer in the third-party CRO platform for molecular breeding, since its establishment in 2017, BoruiDi has been committed to breaking through high-throughput, low-cost precision genotyping and molecular detection technologies, promoting the transformation of animal and plant breeding towards molecular breeding. The company has achieved a reduction in breeding costs by more than 90%, an improvement in precision by more than 40%, and a shortened breeding cycle by 50% through its independently developed GBTS liquid-phase chip technology. Currently, BoruiDi has developed over 520 liquid-phase chips covering 150 species, serving more than 1,300 scientific research institutions and seed industry enterprises, and is committed to providing Chinese solutions for the global seed industry upgrade.

Data source: Borrui Di official website, analysis by Frost & Sullivan