ARROW CORP., a Canadian firm that makes and sells seed-cleaning equipment, found 2008 to be its best year on record, and 2009 “wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be,” says Fred Hass, who added that 2010 sales should be “decent.” The company has manufacturing facilities in Minneapolis and Winnipeg and distributes its equipment through dealers and direct sales to about 2,000 customers.

MONOSEM says it still wants to improve its presence in North America, but the primary focus is on making seeders for difficult-to-seed crops, says Xavier Couval. The company may see more potential here if twin-row corn catches on to a higher degree. “When the U.S. and North America gets into twin row corn and rice, we could sell more units there. The only way for us to get ahead right now is to do something different than what everyone else is doing.”