AGRIBUSINESS The
Facts |
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| Agribusiness
The
term agribusiness is really a catch-all. It refers to the whole
system of modern industrialized agriculture - growing crops and
raising livestock is the central link in a long chain. The food
business also includes farm financing, machinery, chemical, seed
and feed at the 'input' end and processing, manufacturing and marketing
of the food at the 'output' end.
In
both Western countries and the Third World decisions about the kind
of food grown, the way it is grown and who can afford to eat it
are increasingly being made by large multinational corporations.
Caught in a cost-price squeeze Western farmers have left the land
in droves over the last 40 years while farm incomes stagnate and
food prices soar.
In
the developing world dependence on a handful of cash crops has increased,
pushing small farmers off the land and decreasing the amount of
food available for the hungry. Meanwhile multinationals have a strong
hold on marketing the Third World's major income earners.
Here
we look at the inside operations of the agribusiness machine. |
TEA
Percentage
of world exports sold by multinational corporations: |
Dominant
companies
Tea is less important than coffee or cocoa as a major
income-earner for the developing world but critical for Sri
Lanka, Kenya
and Malawi.
Five
European firms (Unilever, Brooke-Bond, Leibig, Cadbury-Schweppes,
J. Lyons and Nestlé) and three American (Standard Brands,
Kellogg and Cocoa-Cola) control 90 per cent of tea sold in
the West. Corporations also moving into Third World markets.
In India Brook-Bond, Liebig and Unilever control 95 per cent
of packet tea sales. |
 COFFEE
Percentage
of world exports sold by multinational corporations:
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Dominant
companies
Coffee
is a key foreign exchange earner in 24 developing countries
including African states like Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Ivory
Coast, Tanzania and Cameroon. It is also vital in all of Central
America and Haiti.
The
two largest companies in coffee, Nestlé and General
Foods control an average 90 per cent of coffee sales in Europe
and Japan. |
|  BANANAS
Percentage
of world exports sold by multinational corporations:
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Dominant
companies
Most
of the world's bananas (80 per cent) are eaten where they are
grown as a staple food. Nonetheless, bananas are one of the
top five developing country exports.
Three
US firms - United Brands, Castle and Cooke and Del Monte -
control 61 per cent of the global banana trade. Four companies
including Geest (UK) and Atlanta (West Germany) dominate the
European market.
The
three majors have nine plantations in Central America and the
Philippines. And shipping and ripening and distribution outlets
in North America, Europe and Japan. |
|  SUGAR
Percentage
of world exports sold by Multinational corporations:
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Dominant
companies
Sugar
exports from the Third World have increased only marginally
over the last 30 years with Western markets reaching the saturation
level. Still, for at least nine Third World countries sugar
is a major income earner.
Western
companies have gradually shifted from production, but still
dominate technology marketing and consumer sales. Tate and
Lyle imports 95 per cent of all cane sugar into the EEC. Sweden
and Belgium have single firm monopolies while two companies
process 92 per cent of Canada's sugar and 85 per cent of France's. |
| ...
modern agriculture has brought dramatically increased yields but
has also increased landlessness and hunger.
| • In
the US the number of family farms has dropped by 50 percent
in the last 25 years. The top 5 per cent of landowners
own half the nation’s farmland and the top 3 per
cent of farms control 44 per cent of farm production. |
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• In
1976, farmers made up just 4 per cent of Canada’s
total population, a drop of nearly 70 percent in 45 years.
During the same period (1921 -76) average farm size increased
from 84 to 224 hectares. |
| • In
Europe the number of farmers on the land varies from 12
per cent of the population in France to 2 per cent in the
UK. In the EEC as a whole the number of workers in agriculture
declined from 20 per cent in 1960 to 9 per cent in 1980. |
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| ...industrial
agriculture has led to greater dependence on fewer farmers with
larger farms.
| • In
Latin American where 8 per cent of the population owns
80 percent of the land production of subsistence food crops
decreased by 10 per cent from 1964-74 while production
of cash crops for export increased by 27 per cent |
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• After
Ralston Purina introduced soybeans in one area of Colombia
for use as poultry feed, the number of large holdings increased
by 12 per cent from 1960-71 while land held by small farmers
decreased by 12 per cent |
| • Unilever,
the world’s biggest food business, has 25 per cent
of its employees in Africa. In 1978 the company’s
turnover of $10 billion was greater than the combined GNP
of 25 African countries. |
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EATING
ENERGY
Energy, mostly derived from petroleum, is a major ingredient in large-scale mechanized
agriculture. It takes about 10 calories of energy to produce 1 calorie of food
for consumption. If the whole world were to be fed using the US food system as
a model, it would soak up 80 per cent of the world’s annual energy expenditure. |
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Sources:
Transanational Corporations in Food and Beverage Processing UN 1981
Agribusiness in the Americas
Earth Resources Ltd.
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