Issues and Concerns on the Market Concentration of Giant Agrifood Retailers in Commodity Chains and Competition Policies

From Bottleneck to Hourglass: Issues and Concerns on the Market Concentration of Giant Agrifood Retailers in Commodity Chains and Competition Policies

By Jayson Cainglet. Heinrich Boll Striftung Global Issues Paper NO. 29, DECEMBER 2006

This paper looks at the current debates and discussions as regards competition policies at the multilateral and regional levels; and at some country specific updates, as they relate to curbing the market concentration of giant retailers. Competition policy, as defined and used in this paper, is, in theory, any of the enabling laws, guidelines, policies or regulations designed to ensure that competition in the marketplace is not limited or controlled for the benefit of only a few entities (i.e. market power of corporations in the era of globalization) in a way that is detrimental to society in general.

Lastly, this paper puts forward a number of framework-based approaches as we look into solutions and alternatives to the current competition policy regime, which does not negate, but, in fact, further strengthens the market concentration of agrifood retailers in the commodity chains. How should we unclog or unblock the bottlenecks and the hourglass' narrow tube? Should we just find a bigger bottle with a wider bottleneck? Should we just find an hourglass with a much wider tube that connects both bulbs? Or should we just break the bottles and hourglasses and replace them with something else? However, the question remains: how and when can this be done?

Available for download at http://www.ecofair-trade.org/pics/en/finalprintversionHBFGIP_Paper_Dec_27_2006.pdf