World’s leading biotechnology firms are mulling with the idea of merging themselves. But this could sound an alarming bell because the merger could result in steep increases in the price farmers pay for cotton seed and small increases in corn and soybean seed. This could potentially lead to increased consumer prices for food and fiber, according to a study by the Agricultural and Food Policy Center at Texas A&M University. The study was included as part of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the subject of consolidation in the US seed and agrochemical industry.

Both the Texas Corn Producers Association and Southwest Council of Agribusiness requested the study after the announcements of proposed mergers between DuPont and Dow as well as Monsanto and Bayer. On the other hand, corn could see an expected seed price increase of 2.3 per cent followed by the price of soybean seed of 1.9 per cent, the study noted. It is natural that when seed price increase, it would result in increased consumer prices.