農業資材産業における多国籍アグリビジネスのグローバル戦略(資材価格高止まり・農産物価格低迷下の農業市場と政策課題,2010年度大会シンポジウム報告)

抄録

The recent global "food crisis" and subsequent market fluctuations have revealed clearly the significant role played by a handful transnational agribusiness corporations not just in the grain trading sector as happened in 1970s, but also in agricultural input sectors in a way that these corporations have reaped enormous profits at the expense of farmers worldwide. This is possible because of an undue exercise of their oligopolistic influence on the agricultural input market. Their influence is also exerted through providing farmers with farming technology, information and services packaged in agricultural input products. Under the global restructuring of agriculture and food systems, transnational agribusiness corporations are developing strategies to deal with rapidly changing market conditions: market expansion in emerging economies and market saturation in developed ones, while growing public concerns about adverse effects of some of agricultural input products on the environment, human health, and rural communities. This paper describes the outlook of the global agricultural input industries, and elaborates on the global strategies of transnational agribusiness corporations. Although these will be done separately by industry sector since each has its own characteristics, the paper will conclude with a short summary of common features identified across the industries.