Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley announced there will be a hearing on the increasing consolidation within the seed and chemical industry in late September.
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Mr. Grassley, who has previously called for scrutiny of agricultural mergers, was among a group of lawmakers who earlier this year sought a deeper review of the ChemChina-Syngenta merger, raising concerns around food security.
Sen. Charles Grassley (R., Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said multibillion-dollar deals between some of the agriculture sector’s biggest players could reduce competition and lead to higher prices for farmers at a time when farm income is projected to hit its lowest level in more than a decade. Consumers, companies affected by the mergers and antitrust experts are among those expected to appear. He also expects his committee to exert some leverage on regulators and parties involved. Syngenta’s seeds could get fast-tracked while competing products from US companies like Monsanto Co. and DuPont Co. are stymied [said Roger Johnson, president of the National Farmers Union]. He argues the current structure of the six major seed and chemical companies would be reduced to four, one of which would be owned by China’s government.
Grassley is urging Justice and the FTC to coordinate their anti-trust reviews-something he says they may now do.
CFIUS investigations focus on how a change in ownership would affect US national security.
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“The concern is enough for me to have a hearing on the issue, but it’s not an overreaction, it’s not a massive voice against it”, Grassley said of those farmer comments.
