This deal will see two of the largest crop protection and seed companies in the world merge to have a combined agri-chemical and seed sales business of more than $18bn. This will make it significantly larger than its nearest rivals Monsanto, with sales of $15bn, and Syngenta, with sales of $15bn.

Bayer ($10.5bn) and Basf ($7.3bn) are the other two major players who when combined with the top three, together control more than 75% of the worlds seed market.

This deal is expected to reshape the chemical and agricultural industries. The merger would see Dowdupont now controlling about 40% of the maize corn, soya seed and related genetics market in the US, and 17% of the global crop protection market.

This deal could increase the pressure for remaining companies to merge, resulting in even less competition.