Ahead of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on consolidation in the seed and ag chemical sector, the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission say they will consider the combined impact of mergers as well as the import of each deal. If they go forward, the mergers would result in three dominant companies in the sector instead of the current six.
Judiciary chairman Charles Grassley of Iowa said the pledge of collaboration among regulators was reassuring. “The consolidation trend we’re seeing in the seed and agrochemical industries has all of us concerned that less competition will mean increased prices for seeds, chemicals and fertilizers for farmers,” said Grassley.
Executives from DuPont, Dow, Syngenta, Bayer and Monsanto are scheduled to testify at the Judiciary hearing on Tuesday, along with leaders of the American Farm Bureau, National Farmers Union and National Corn Growers Association. Bayer wants to purchase Monsanto, Dow and DuPont are merging and state-owned ChemChina is buying Syngenta, based in Switzerland. The Justice Department is in change of the antitrust review of Dow and DuPont while the FTC is examining ChemChina-Syngenta.