Grim reapers of SouthAfrica’s food andfarming systems
©The African Centre for Biodiversity, April 2017, 51 pages
This paper investigates the global context of three mega agri-mergers currently underway in the seed and agrochemical sectors.This paper complements an earlier paper produced by the ACB titled “The BayerMonsanto merger: Implications for South Africa’s agricultural future and its smallholder farmers”, which was published in February 2017 and which essentially focuses on the Bayer-Monsanto merger.
According to this report the current oligopolistic situation where 6 multinational companies control the seed and agrochemical sectors is about to get a lot worse. US chemical giants, Dow Chemical and DuPont are set to merge, China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina) is to acquire Syngenta and Bayer is to acquire Monsanto. The proposed Bayer-Monsanto merger will give control of almost 30% of the world’s commercial seed market and almost 25% of the world’s commercial pesticide and herbicide (agrochemical) markets to just one company.
The Competition Commission of South Africa (CCSA) has already ruled in favour of the ChemChina acquisition of Syngenta and has completed its investigation of the Dow Chemical-DuPont merger, for which it is awaiting remedies by the parties before it concludes the matter. The CCSA is set to make a finding on the Bayer Monsanto merger at the end of April 2017.
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