The food supply chain has experienced fundamental changes during the last two decades. It has
become more globalized, and the scale of production and economic concentration have both
increased. A shrinking number of firms dominate both the distribution and the input side of the
agri-food chain. For example, four agri-business firms are estimated to control 75–90 percent of
the global grain trade, raising concerns about barriers to entry, information flows and the
potential for oligopolistic companies to abuse their dominant market position. Concentration
among multinational companies is increasingly evident in a number of agriculture sectors,
including inputs (e.g. seeds, plant and animal protection products), marketing, food processing
and food retail