The president of the American National Farmers Union was in Winnipeg last week speaking about competition and consolidation in the agricultural inputs industry.
Roger Johnson says while there are pros and cons to everything in life, these mergers are ultimately having negative impacts on agriculture.
He notes the majority of these mergers tend to get approved, however the one wildcard out there is that a lot of the authorities that are in the position of having to sign off on these mergers are taking a step back and looking at the overall marketplace impact.
Johnson said there are two ways of pushing back against the market power created by these mergers.
"Either the buyers of those products have to become so few in number that they themselves have market power that they can push back. Well that means getting rid of millions of farmers and having just a few, well that's not likely to happen...and the other thing is for government regulations to somehow intercede."
Source : Portageonline