The Justice Department should block the Dow-DuPont merger, which would create the largest seed and ag chemical company in the world, because it would unduly reduce competition in the sector, say a trio of legal, farm and consumer groups. The merger is part of a wave of consolidations that would turn the world’s six biggest seed and ag chemical companies — Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, DuPont, Dow and BASF — into “a Big 4, dominated by a Monsanto-Bayer and Dow-DuPont duopoly,” said the groups in a letter to regulators.
Because of the vast scale of the companies involved, “the likely harmful effects of the proposed merger cannot be effectively remedied in a way that fully restores competition and adequately protects consumer interest,” said the letter by the American Antitrust Institute, Food and Water Watch, and National Farmers Union.
“Indeed, crafting relief is inherently difficult in a merger of this size and impact and in a market with few, if any, viable buyers of assets. AAI, F&WW and NFU therefore urge the (Justice Department) to challenge the proposed merger of Dow-DuPont, a combination that would fundamentally restructure the nation’s markets for agricultural inputs, with likely adverse effects on competition, farmers and consumers.”
To read the 16-page letter, click here.