DOJ Begins Antitrust Inquiry into Seeds

Monsanto says its market share reflects grower preferences.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture begins today the first in a series of workshops exploring potential antitrust and regulatory issues in the agriculture industry. The meeting at Ankeny, IA is the first time U.S. regulators have scrutinized competition and regulation in the seed market, and come amid accusations of antitrust behavior by the seed industry's market leader Monsanto.

"We all know that one of the greatest threats to our economy is the erosion of free competition in our markets," U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement. "And we've learned the hard way that recessions and long periods of reckless deregulation can foster practices that are anti-competitive and even illegal.So we must ask, is today's agriculture industry suffering from a lack of free and fair competition in the marketplace?"

DOJ issued Monsanto a civil investigative demand (CID) in January, compelling Monsanto to disclose information about its soybean traits business, amid accusations by  DuPont’s Pioneer Hi-Bred business that Monsanto’s licensing practices are anti-competitive. DuPont says Monsanto's licensing agreements prevent seed companies from stacking Monsanto and non-Monsanto technologies in a single seed, a restriction that denies farmers the choice of the best seeds and forces Monsanto customers to rely solely on Monsanto technology. According to DuPont, Monsanto's market share in the U.S. soybean and corn market is 98% and 79%, respectively.

Monsanto refutes DuPont’s claims, saying competition in the seed industry is robust and Monsanto’s market share reflects grower preferences, not anti-competitive practices. "Monsanto's early decision to widely license its technology had made the company's innovations broadly available to farmers across the country, providing them with another choice as they looked to combat weeds and bugs on farm," Monsanto says. The company currently licenses its products to independent seed companies as well as its competitors. A federal court recently ruled in Monsanto's favor in a patent infringement suit against Pioneer.

"The innovations in biotechnology and breeding have brought not just more choice, but tremendous value to U.S. farmers," says Jim Tobin, v.p./industry affairs and workshop panelist, citing third party research that estimates U.S. farmers have realized $20 billion in extra income in one decade from growing biotech corn, soybeans and cotton. "Farmers have utilized these inventions to garner important benefits such as higher yields, pesticide reduction, time-savings and the ability to adopt conservation techniques in their farming operations." Competition will continue to grow in coming years as the industry prepares for the generic availability of the first widely-planted biotech trait, Roundup Ready soybeans, after 2014, Tobin adds.