On December 17, Prof. Alexey Ivanov, Director, BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre, delivered a presentation at a UNCTAD Research Partnership Platform Webinar on Highly Concentrated Global Food Value Chains. The event brought together competition authorities and leading academics and was moderated by Ebru Gökçe Dessemond, Economic Affairs Officer, UNCTAD.
In his presentation, Ivanov highlighted the issue of concentrated market power in global grain trade. According to the BRICS Competition Centre’s report “From Fields to Futures: Competition, Financialisation and Digitalisation in Global Grain Value Chains,” presented in September on the sidelines of the IX International BRICS Competition Conference, in South Africa, a small group of global grain traders (the so-called ABCD companies) controls up to 70–80% of global turnover and key bottlenecks in the grain value chain. Their market power is ecosystemic, reinforced by control over logistics, infrastructure, and pricing mechanisms, which directly affects price volatility and food security risks, especially in developing countries. Ivanov emphasized the financialization of grain trading as a key driver of ABCD traders’ power, noting that much of their revenue comes from derivatives, hedging, and other financial operations rather than physical grain trading. Antitrust authorities rarely take these financial instruments into account when assessing market power and coordination along the value chain.
Special attention was given to digitalization and closed platforms created by dominant players, notably Covantis and Tract. Ivanov stressed that, unlike other industries, digitalization in the grain sector reinforces oligopolistic market structures rather than reducing entry barriers. Aggregation and sharing of sensitive data, as well as process standardization within closed ecosystems, create serious risks of collusion that are currently weakly monitored by regulators. He suggested that cooperation among competition authorities is essential to counterbalance the power of these traders:
“We propose a joint BRICS or BRICS+ inquiry and the creation of a UNCTAD-supported agri-commodity observatory to assist countries affected by structural dysfunctions in the global grain market. It is also necessary to study digital platforms such as Covantis and Tract due to high risks of collusion and vertical integration. ABCD companies should be required to increase transparency in financial and hedging operations and participate in open exchange mechanisms, such as a potential BRICS Grain Exchange.”
Ivanov noted that the uniqueness of BRICS lies in bringing together the largest grain exporters and importers, and expanding its membership increases the initiative’s significance. He also emphasized that new technologies, including artificial intelligence, enable forms of coordination that fall outside traditional “agreements,” particularly through shared algorithms — a point highlighted by Prof. Eleanor M. Fox, Walter J. Derenberg Professor of Trade Regulation Emerita, New York University School of Law, United States. Current case law does not yet effectively address such coordination or bring it within antitrust enforcement.
Mergers were highlighted as a particularly complex issue. Large deals, such as the Bunge-Viterra merger, are often approved by national competition authorities with minimal or no conditions, particularly in developing countries where regulators have limited powers and resources. This increases companies’ market power, which is insufficiently accounted for by regulators. Fox noted that this is a serious problem due to inadequate legal remedies and lack of global cooperation on anticompetitive mergers, compounded by emerging norms in which many countries increasingly pursue nationalist policies that protect “their” corporate mergers, complicating global antitrust regulation.
In the context of global confrontation and rising protectionism and nationalism, Ivanov stressed the growing importance of cooperation among competition authorities, noting that regulators still have an opportunity to partially change the current dynamics. He added:
“Competition law has significant potential to address complex social challenges. If competition authorities can demonstrate their relevance by contributing to global problem-solving without being drawn into various forms of confrontation — be it trade wars, economic conflicts, or armed clashes — then it may be possible to overcome the current nationalist trend.”
Prof. Simon Roberts, Professor of economics, University of Johannesburg; Professor in economics, SOAS University of London, emphasized the need to study market concentration at the regional level, highlighting high concentration among fertilizer, feed, and other agricultural traders in East and Southern Africa. These companies not only supply seeds and fertilizers, train farmers, and process products, but are also integrated into global markets and international trade and finance. Extensive communication between them creates serious challenges for national regulators, who often see only the “tip of the iceberg.” He stressed the importance of enhancing international cooperation among competition authorities to coordinate investigations and improve cross-border data sharing.
Representatives from Zambia and the Dominican Republic also presented at the webinar. Ms. Josephine Chanda Katoma, Acting Chief Investigator, Cartels and Restrictive Business Practices, Zambia Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, discussed anticompetitive practices and mergers in Zambia’s food markets, including the joint venture of Aviagen with local Ross Breeders Zambia and a dairy cartel investigation. Mr. José Beltré Cuevas, Director, Department of Competition Promotion and Advocacy, ProCompetencia, Dominican Republic, spoke about the work of his young agency in promoting competition under limited resources and capacities.
In conclusion, participants agreed that UNCTAD could serve as a platform for developing a digital tool to facilitate data exchange among BRICS competition authorities and other developing countries. Creating a shared infrastructure or platform for data sharing, analysis, and discussion among competition authorities would reduce bureaucratic burdens and increase the effectiveness of antitrust investigations. Ivanov noted:
“We should countervail the growing power of digital giants and other large players that are actively digitalizing their operations. UNCTAD could provide an ideal basis for developing such a facility.”
The Research Partnership Platform (RPP) was established in 2010 as an informal mechanism to engage researchers in UNCTAD’s work on competition and consumer protection. The RPP aims to strengthen the impact of UNCTAD's work in the pillars of research and analysis and technical cooperation, by deepening the substantive edge of its research and policy analysis and enhancing the added value of its technical assistance activities, especially in developing countries. It also contributes to building an international platform for discussions and the exchange of information and ideas on competition and consumer protection issues.
