Casale will reaffirm full-year 2009 ongoing earnings per share (EPS) at the low end of its previously-announced range of $4.40 to $4.50 and update key drivers for this guidance. Gross profit for Roundup(R) and other glyphosate-based herbicides is expected to be lower than anticipated, offset by an expected slightly higher seeds and genomics gross profit, incremental selling, general and administrative savings, and a lower tax rate. Monsanto expects ongoing EPS in the range of $3.10 to $3.30 for fiscal year 2010, Casale will say in prepared remarks at the UBS Fourth Annual Best of Americas Conference in London. (For a reconciliation of 2009 and 2010 ongoing full year EPS, see note 1.)

Casale will re-emphasize the company's commitment to more than doubling gross profit in fiscal year 2012 over its fiscal year 2007 base, with seeds and genomics making up 85 percent of the total gross profit mix by that time. The company expects to achieve these results by making its farmer customers around the world more profitable, he will explain.

Total company gross profit is expected to reach $6.1 billion to $6.3 billion in 2010, with seeds and traits gross profit crossing the $5 billion mark for the first time, with a projected range of $5.1 billion to $5.2 billion. Gross profit from Roundup(R) and other glyphosate-based products is expected in the range of $650 million to $750 million in 2010.

"Globally on the farm, the underlying economic proposition is still positive and the need for more yield is still a valid near- and long-term assumption; on the other hand, there is some near- term supply/ demand imbalance in the chemical side of agriculture," Casale will say. "We are now managing our way through a competitive spike in the supply of generic glyphosate. The financial effect for us has been that we are now targeting to optimize the gross profit from Roundup(R) and other glyphosate-based products at $1 billion annually. While we can see a path to the $1 billion target in 2012, there are multiple headwinds causing us to forecast below that mark in the next two years."

The global branded net average selling price will be approximately $10 to $12 per gallon in 2010, with premiums more in line with historical norms. Volumes for Roundup(R) and other glyphosate-based herbicides are targeted at more than 250 million gallons for fiscal year 2010.

"In short, our growth as a company will not be driven by the 15 percent of the business that will be the agricultural productivity segment, but by the 85 percent that will be seeds and genomics," Casale will explain.