Business Power in Agriculture Value Chains

This book examines how multinational agribusiness companies shape the regulation of agricultural value chains in Latin America. Focusing on Argentina—one of the world’s largest agricultural exporters—it analyzes distributive conflicts across three policy arenas: seed intellectual property rights, foreign trade policy, and environmental regulation. The book argues that trading and input MNCs exercise structural power that constrains governments’ policy options and channels rents toward foreign rather than domestic actors. Departing from conventional accounts that emphasize the threat of disinvestment or exit, it shows that agribusiness power rests instead on control over access to technology and international markets—resources that farmers depend on for productivity and that states require for growth. Set against the backdrop of the 2000s commodity boom, the book contributes to broader debates on the political economy of natural resource industries and the relationship between left-of-center governments and economic elites. Its analysis draws on more than fifty interviews with policymakers, business leaders, and association representatives in Argentina.