This submission is made by the ABC because of serious public interest concerns about the proposed merger between Bayer and Monsanto. This merger is occurring in the context of other related mergers in agricultural input supply, between ChemChina-Syngenta and Dow-Du Pont.
We urge the Commission to consider the wider implications of these mergers beyond a narrow view of competition in segmented product markets. These include the entrenchment of the dominant technological platform in agricultural inputs, broader impacts on the agro-food system, agricultural biodiversity, input prices for farmers and knock-on effects on food prices, domestic innovation, and implications for just economic transformation and widening the base of productive activity.
