OTTAWA, ON – The Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) has concerns with the decision made by the Government of Canada to approve Bunge Ltd.’s US$8.2 billion acquisition of Viterra Ltd. While the decision to approve the merger does, in part, address some of the concerns raised by producers earlier in the process and includes a $520 million investment commitment from Bunge, the conditions set for the deal do not go far enough to truly ensure a competitive marketplace for Canadian farmers.
“We need to ensure that, at a minimum, the conditions set around this deal are being met,” said Keith Currie, President of the CFA. “Our concerns from the beginning were that this deal would not be in the best interests of farmers and the fact that Bunge has maintained its minority ownership stake in G3 certainly furthers those concerns. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, it is the farmers who will pay.”
Building on the Competition Bureau’s initial assessment of the merger’s potential negative consequences on competition in regions across Canada, research conducted by the University of Saskatchewan found that this deal, without a divestment of G3 would result in hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue for farmers every year.
Moving forward, CFA believes it’s critical that Government ensures all parties are financially accountable to commitments they put forward while going through the merger process. Further steps should also be taken to ensure subsequent merger reviews closely consider the impact of any further consolidation on Canadian producers in what are already highly concentrated upstream industries.
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