EditAnalysis: Who controls the food on your table, and your grocery bill?
How a handful of global giants dictate what farmers grow, what supermarkets sell, and why your grocery bill keeps rising while small producers and consumers lose out
Real solutions in regulating foodstuff retail prices require, among other things, addressing monopoly power across the supply chain, writes Borisav Sretkov.
Borislav Sretkov is a former businessman, now art curator and author based in Berlin.
In today’s hyper-capitalist world, the power of capital reaches every corner of the economy, including the most basic human need: food. From deciding what crops farmers plant to setting supermarket prices, a small group of transnational corporations controls the entire agricultural supply chain. This is not a neutral market outcome – it is the result of a deliberate, century-long power game that has concentrated control over seeds, fertilizers, machinery, processing, distribution, and retail.
From fields to factories: the industrialisation of agriculture
The transformation began in the 1830s with industrialization and accelerated in the early 20th century through mechanization (tractors, combines), agricultural chemistry, hybrid seeds, synthetic fertilizers, and pesticides. These innovations enabled massive monocultures, standardization, and economies of scale. Large players created their own rules: proprietary seeds, expensive machinery unaffordable to small farmers, and stable markets for their inputs.
This was not just technological progress – it was a strategic power play. Companies such as Bayer and BASF (Germany), Deere & Company (USA), and later Corteva Agriscience (from Dow and DuPont) built enduring dominance. They understood how to create, manage, and control markets through supply-chain dominance, price manipulation, and elimination of competition.
Concentration and oligopoly: the “A-team” of global agro-players
Today, a handful of corporations dominate key segments (2023 data):
- Pesticides (61% market share): Corteva, Syngenta, Bayer, BASF.
- Fertilizers (25%): Yara, Mosaic, CF Industries, Nutrien.
- Seeds (56%): Corteva, Bayer, Syngenta, BASF.
- Agricultural machinery (43%): Deere & Company, CNH, Kubota, AGCO.
These firms operate as an oligopoly — they do not compete aggressively with one another but divide markets, maintain high prices, and squeeze suppliers. Grain trading is similarly dominated by Cargill, Louis Dreyfus, and Archer Daniels Midland.
This concentration extends to retail. In Germany, four groups (Edeka, Rewe, Schwarz/Lidl-Kaufland, Aldi) controlled 55% of the food market in 1995. By the end of 2024, their share reached 88%. Small independent shops and bakeries have been pushed to the margins (down to ~12%).
The financialization of everything: from wheat to futures
Since the 1990s, Big Capital has financialized commodities. Agricultural products, minerals, and energy are traded as futures on exchanges, detached from simple supply and demand. Prices are set by speculation, bets on the future, and algorithmic trading. This creates two parallel businesses: real production (fields/factories) and financial extraction (capital markets), where future profits are pulled into the present.
The result is artificial price inflation decoupled from real costs. Governments’ attempts to cap prices (UK bread/milk, France “anti-inflation basket”, Greece “household basket”, Hungary direct caps, Spain VAT cuts) have largely failed because they address symptoms, not the monopoly structure.
Who eats the “banana”? A supply-chain case study
Consider a box of bananas sold in Germany (a symbolic everyday product, famously used by Aldi as a price benchmark):
- Hired worker in Ecuador (plantations): 7%
- Production process: 13%
- Export: 4%
- Importers: 19%
- Ripening: 11%
- Supermarkets: 41% (the lion’s share)
Supermarkets capture the largest margin. Similar dynamics apply across food categories. In France, primary producers receive only ~6.9% of the final retail price (down from 13% thirty years ago). In the US, a few corporations control 75–98% of many staple categories (soft drinks 93%, baby food 82%, mayonnaise 83%, etc.).
Small producers and workers bear the cost. Five of the ten lowest-paid professions in the USA are in food-related industries. In Germany, the number of traditional bakeries has fallen over 80% since 1950, with 20,000 jobs lost. Butchers and mills show similar consolidation.
Profits, inequality, and the “casino capitalism” model
Aggregate corporate profits as a share of global GDP tell the story:
- 1975: All firms 14.3% (big concerns 4%)
- 2005: Big concerns captured nearly the entire 16.1% global profit pool
- 2020: Big concerns 18.5% of world GDP
The explosion after the mid-1990s coincides with financialization. Wars and crises (never truly unplanned) further redistribute wealth upward. The Iraq and Afghanistan wars alone cost over $5 trillion.
Inequality is the inevitable outcome. Purchasing power shrinks for ordinary households while the rich get richer. Governments’ price interventions offer temporary relief but leave the monopoly structure intact.
Sugar, children, and long-term health costs
Corporations aggressively target children with sweetened products. German children consume twice the recommended sweets and half the fruits/vegetables. Advertising is 92% skewed toward unhealthy items. 15% of German children aged 3–17 are overweight. OECD data links unhealthy diets to one in seven deaths in Germany.
Profit margins reveal the incentive: muesli/snacks 16.7%, confectionery 15%, dairy 12.4%, ice cream 9.4%, fruits/vegetables only 4.6%. In 2021, Germany spent €870 million advertising sugar products versus €17 million for fruits and vegetables.
Water as commodity
Access to clean water is a human right since 2010, yet the bottled-water market exceeds $300 billion annually. Four companies (Danone, Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Tingui) control 35% globally; with Pepsi, they hold 70% of the US market. During droughts, concerns continue pumping groundwater while locals face shortages and high prices.
Germany’s response: the 500 billion euro investment push
Germany has recognized the depth of the problem. A new €500 billion extraordinary investment programme (outside the regular budget) targets digitalization, education, energy, transport, healthcare, housing, and agriculture. Funds will be released in tranches with strong transparency and monitoring mechanisms. This marks a shift toward active state involvement in modernization after two decades of underinvestment.
The deeper diagnosis
Regulating retail prices or capping a few items treats symptoms. Real solutions require addressing monopoly power across the supply chain, reducing financial speculation on commodities, supporting small producers, and ensuring fair distribution of value. Investments must reach farmers and workers, not just large intermediaries.
Without structural change – stronger institutions, rule of law, genuine competition, and policies that prioritize people over monopoly profits – the “banana” will continue to be eaten disproportionately by the same powerful players, while ordinary citizens face rising costs and shrinking purchasing power.
The game is rigged in favour of concentrated capital. Reversing it demands more than price controls – it requires rewriting the rules of the game itself.
Caption: Illustrative photo. A Sainsbury’s staff fills shelves at a Sainsbury’s supermarket in London, Britain, 23 April 2026. Sainsbury’s grocery sales have jumped by 5.2 percent in 2025 but have warned that grocery prices will rise if the conflict in the Middle East continues. EPA/ANDY RAIN
Updated: July 6, 2026 - 12:26
