The Reality of Major Food Companies Dominating the Global Food Market and Countermeasures for Food Crises

There is a group of multinational corporations known as "food majors" that exert significant influence on the global food supply. Companies like Cargill, ADM, Louis Dreyfus, Bunge, and Nestle purchase, process, store, and sell agricultural products such as wheat, rice, corn, and soybeans produced in major agricultural regions around the world. They are also actively involved in seed development, genetically modified crop research, and the development of fertilizers and pesticides. In essence, they play the roles of food traders, biotechnology companies, and food processors simultaneously.

These food majors, particularly concentrated in the United States, the world's largest grain exporter, hold 68% of the total grain storage facilities and exert enormous influence by managing 30% of the total US grain inventory as of the end of 2022. They own elevators, export port facilities, and dedicated vessels across the globe, giving them control over global food distribution.

These food majors have gained unprecedented power due to the support and protection of major producing countries' governments, allowing them to monopolize their domestic agricultural markets. However, when global food crises arise, they prioritize national interests and restrict exports, leading to the collapse of the international food supply chain. The sharp rise in global food prices and the breakdown of supply chains during the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war are examples of this phenomenon.

Countries like South Korea, which face difficulties in achieving food self-sufficiency, find themselves vulnerable to the whims of food majors and risk losing food security opportunities to countries with greater financial resources, such as China and India. To overcome this, regaining food sovereignty is the best solution. Every country should achieve at least a minimum level of food self-sufficiency, and trade should be used as a supplementary measure.

However, in reality, free trade in agricultural products is difficult to achieve. When two countries producing a particular agricultural product engage in trade, one of them may be unable to continue domestic production due to competition from imported agricultural products, leading to the eventual extinction of that crop. Moreover, with the global food production volume already insufficient, if a country imports at a price that does not protect its domestic producers, countries with limited purchasing power will be unable to afford imports and face starvation.

Therefore, for agricultural trade to be a truly mutually beneficial relationship, the global food production volume must first be sufficient to meet the demand of all countries worldwide, and importing countries must be able to import at a price that allows them to maintain their domestic agriculture without manipulation by producing countries. However, achieving these conditions is practically impossible.

Therefore, it is wise for each country to maximize its food self-sufficiency and utilize trade only as a supplementary measure. To avoid severe global food crises, it is crucial for every nation to safeguard its minimum level of food sovereignty.