Corteva's Q2 2026 sales dipped 1% to $6.38B and GAAP net income fell 12% on separation costs, litigation and currency losses, but Operating EBITDA rose to $2.26B as Seed margins widened; guidance was raised ahead of the October 1 Vylor seed spin-off.
Revenue
$6.4B
-1.2% YoY
Net income
$1.2B
-11.6% YoY
Diluted EPS
$1.73
-9.9% YoY
Operating margin
28.0%
Overview
Corteva's second quarter is its biggest seed quarter by far. Farmers in the US and Canada take delivery of corn and soybean seed for spring planting, and Corteva books most of those sales between April and June. In Q2 2026, North America made up $4,548 million of the $6,379 million total (71%), and Seed made up $4,532 million (71%). That seasonality is why this one quarter is worth reading closely: it sets the shape of the whole year.
On the surface the quarter looks weak. Net sales fell 1% to $6,379 million, and net income attributable to Corteva fell 11.6% to $1,161 million ($1.73 per diluted share, down from $1.92). Underneath, the business did better than a year ago. Operating EBITDA, the company's own measure of core profit (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, excluding one-off items and the cost of the planned break-up), rose to $2,261 million from $2,164 million. Its margin widened by about 190 basis points (1.9 percentage points) to 35.4%. The gap between the two views comes from items that were absent or small last year: $79 million of separation costs, litigation settlements, larger currency losses, a tax charge tied to a pension contribution, and the loss of a $98 million insurance recovery that boosted Q2 2025.
The quarter also sits right before a major change. Corteva is splitting in two: the Seed business is being spun off as Vylor Inc., and Corteva keeps the Crop Protection business. The spin-off is targeted for October 1, 2026.
*The income statement has no "operating income" line. We calculate operating margin as net sales minus cost of goods sold, R&D, SG&A, amortization, restructuring charges and separation costs ($1,787M vs. $1,753M), divided by net sales. It excludes other income/expense and interest.
First half (six months to June 30): net sales $11,284M (+4%), net income attributable to Corteva $1,881M (vs. $1,966M, -4.3%), diluted EPS $2.80 (vs. $2.87), Operating EBITDA $3,699M (+10%) and Operating EPS $3.80 (+14%).
What moved sales: volume down, price up, currency helped
Corteva splits its sales change into four parts: price & product mix (what customers paid, including a shift toward pricier products), volume (how many units shipped), currency (the effect of converting foreign sales into dollars) and portfolio (acquisitions and divestitures). In Q2 total sales fell 1%: volume -3%, price +1%, currency +1%, portfolio nil.
The 10-Q gives two reasons for the volume drop. The first is timing shifts in North America and Brazil: some purchases landed in a different quarter. The second is that US farmers planted less corn and more soybeans. Crop mix matters because corn is Corteva's largest seed line: corn seed sales fell $93M in the quarter while soybean seed sales rose $61M.
By region:
Region
Q2 2026 sales
YoY
Price/mix
Volume
Currency
North America
$4,548M
-2%
+2%
-4%
0%
EMEA
$730M
-2%
+1%
-5%
+2%
Latin America
$679M
+1%
-7%
0%
+8%
Asia Pacific
$422M
+3%
0%
+8%
-5%
Latin America shows a currency distortion. Reported sales rose 1%, but only because a stronger Brazilian real added 8 points. Price/mix for the region fell 7%. The filing attributes this to "the competitive Crop Protection pricing environment in Latin America": Crop Protection prices in the region fell 10%, while Seed prices there rose 7%. Asia Pacific is the reverse: volume grew 8%, but a weaker Indian rupee cut 5 points from the reported figure.
Seed: flat sales, higher profit
Seed
Q2 2026
Q2 2025
YoY
Net sales
$4,532M
$4,537M
0%
Segment operating EBITDA
$1,966M
$1,863M
+6%
Segment operating EBITDA margin
43.4%
41.1%
+2.3 pts
Seed sales were flat: price/mix +3%, volume -3%. Corn is the biggest line and fell 3% ($93M); corn price/mix rose 4% but corn volume fell 7%. Soybeans rose 5% ($61M) on 6% more volume, and "other oilseeds" (a category that includes sunflower) rose 23%. This lines up with the acreage shift the filing describes, "from corn to soybean in North America and corn to sunflower in EMEA."
Profit grew even though sales did not. The filing credits "more favorable pricing and mix, reductions in net royalty expense, and ongoing cost and productivity actions." Two sources stand out:
Out-licensing income. Corteva earns fees when other seed companies use its genetic traits, and that income rose.
Lower net royalty expense. Corteva paid less in royalties to others. This is likely linked to its settlement with Bayer, finalized as of January 2026 (the filing does not tie the two directly). Corteva agreed to pay $610 million: about $546 million was paid through Q1, and the rest was due by September 15, 2026. In return, potential royalty obligations for Enlist E3 soybeans and other disputed future royalty payments to Bayer were terminated.
Licensing fees and royalty savings likely add almost directly to profit, which would explain why segment margin rose about 230 basis points while sales were flat.
Over the first half, Seed sales rose 4% to $7,555M: price/mix +3%, volume flat, currency +1%. Segment operating EBITDA rose 11% to $3,000M.
Crop Protection: lower prices in Latin America, costs cut to offset them
Crop Protection
Q2 2026
Q2 2025
YoY
Net sales
$1,847M
$1,919M
-4%
Segment operating EBITDA
$342M
$334M
+2%
Segment operating EBITDA margin
18.5%
17.4%
+1.1 pts
Crop Protection means herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and biologicals. Its sales fell 4%: price -4%, volume -2%, currency +2%.
North America fell 12%, entirely on volume. The filing attributes this to "channel purchase timing": distributors bought at different times than last year, not farmers using less product.
EMEA volume was hurt by dry weather.
Asia Pacific volume rose 13% ("broad-based volume growth").
By product, fungicides fell 23% ($79M), almost all on volume (-21%). A small "Other" category jumped $118M on volume.
Segment EBITDA still rose 2% because "ongoing cost and productivity actions and favorable currency impacts more than offset" the lower volume and Latin American prices. In the first half, Crop Protection sales rose 3% to $3,729M. Volume rose 2% on "demand for new products" and currency added 4%, while price fell 3%. Segment EBITDA rose 9% to $776M.
Why GAAP earnings fell while operating earnings rose
GAAP (standard accounting) diluted EPS from continuing operations fell to $1.81 from $2.02. Operating EPS, which excludes the items below, rose to $2.30 from $2.20. Per the company's reconciliation, these after-tax items explain the gap:
Item (after tax, per share)
Q2 2026
Q2 2025
Amortization of intangibles from the 2019 DowDuPont separation
Other income (expense) swung from +$103M to -$115M. The causes were litigation settlements ($36M in Q2 tied to lawsuits described under the "Federal Trade Commission Investigation" note), higher currency exchange losses ($75M vs. $25M), and the absence of last year's $98M insurance recovery.
Amortization rose to $194M from $161M. Corteva wrote off some retired trade names faster, and the filing ties this to "certain trade names that were retired during the second quarter of 2026."
The effective tax rate rose to 25.1% from 23.4%. This included a $50M tax charge linked to the discretionary pension contribution (below).
Discontinued operations cost $52M, down from $66M. These are legacy PFAS ("forever chemicals") liabilities shared with Chemours and DuPont from the old DuPont.
A fall in the share count added to per-share results. Diluted shares were 669.8M, down from 683.1M, because of buybacks. Corteva returned about $740M to shareholders in the first half through buybacks and dividends.
The separation: Seed becomes Vylor, Corteva keeps Crop Protection
The 10-Q describes the plan announced October 1, 2025: a separation "into two independent publicly traded companies - one for each of its Seed and Crop Protection businesses," intended as a tax-free spin-off. The Q2 earnings release (8-K Exhibit 99.1, July 30, 2026) and a September 15, 2026 8-K add more detail:
The Seed segment will become Vylor Inc. Corteva keeps Crop Protection.
Corteva's board approved the separation on September 12, 2026.
Shareholders of record on September 24, 2026 get one Vylor share for each Corteva share.
The distribution is expected to be completed before 9:30 a.m. New York time on October 1, 2026.
Costs so far and ahead:
Separation costs were $79M in Q2 and $131M in the first half, mostly advisory, IT, legal and accounting fees. The Q1 release estimated total one-time separation costs at about $350M.
Dis-synergies are the extra costs of running two companies instead of one. The July release says net dis-synergies are "largely offset on run-rate basis," with a $25M headwind in 2026 guidance, down from $50M in May.
Legal risk. The 10-Q notes that fourteen state attorneys general "have threatened Corteva with potential actions to delay or prevent its intended separation." They want documentation of how legacy liabilities will be allocated between the two companies.
This changes how future reports read. From Q3 onward, Seed, the business that produced 71% of this quarter's sales and most of its segment EBITDA, will no longer be part of Corteva's continuing results.
Restructuring
2026 Restructuring Actions. Approved March 15, 2026 to fit the organization to two standalone companies. They are mostly job cuts in commercial and support functions. Expected charges are about $80M, and $78M was booked in the first half. The program targets $115–125M of annual savings by 2027 and should be substantially complete by December 2026.
Crop Protection Operations Strategy Restructuring Program. Started in 2023 to consolidate manufacturing. In June 2026 it was extended to the intended closure of production at Asturias, Spain, subject to consultation with the works council. Total expected charges are $750–815M, with $674M recorded to date. The company expects the program to be substantially complete by the end of 2028.
Q2 restructuring charges were $49M, down from $79M a year ago.
Cash and balance sheet
Operating cash flow from continuing operations was -$3,345M in the first half, compared with -$1,139M a year earlier. Some cash outflow is normal at this point in the year. The filing notes "meaningful seasonal working capital needs based in part on providing financing to its customers": Corteva ships product in spring and often gets paid later. The larger outflow this year came from four items the filing names:
a discretionary US pension contribution ($1,061M paid in June, plus $399M in July)
the Bayer settlement payment
higher compensation payments
a prepayment to FMC related to rimisoxafen
Total debt was $4,875M at June 30, up from $3,629M a year earlier. Cash and marketable securities were $2,365M.
Takeaway: The 11.6% fall in GAAP net income comes from separation costs, litigation settlements, currency losses and the loss of a prior-year insurance recovery, not from the core business. Core profit went the other way: Operating EBITDA margin rose 1.9 points to 35.4%, led by Seed. Seed segment margin rose 2.3 points on flat sales because of licensing income and lower royalty payments after the Bayer settlement. That gain came from licensing income and royalty savings, not from selling more seed: corn seed volume fell 7%.
Guidance and outlook
In its Q2 earnings release (8-K Exhibit 99.1, July 30, 2026), management raised full-year 2026 guidance:
Operating EBITDA of $4.1–4.3 billion (was $4.0–4.2 billion in May), 9% growth at the midpoint.
Operating EPS of $3.60–3.80 (was $3.45–3.70), 11% growth at the midpoint.
These are non-GAAP figures, and the company does not give a GAAP forecast.
The first half already delivered $3.80 of operating EPS, which is above the full-year midpoint of $3.70. That implies the second half roughly breaks even or loses a little on this measure. That is the normal seasonal pattern, not a warning sign. In our reading, the second half is the off-season: Northern Hemisphere seed sales are mostly done, and year-round costs keep running while the smaller South American season builds. Likewise, full-year EBITDA guidance implies only about $0.4–0.6 billion in the second half, after $3.7 billion in the first.
Our view: the Seed profit gains look durable, since they come from pricing, licensing and royalty savings rather than a volume surge. The bigger question for 2026–27 is Crop Protection, the business Corteva will keep. Its prices are falling in Latin America (-7% for the region, -4% for the segment in Q2), and so far cost cuts have held its margin up. That business will be all of Corteva's continuing results after October 1. Watch the Q3 filing for the first results with Seed shown as discontinued operations, and for whether Crop Protection pricing in Brazil stabilizes during its main selling season.