Farmers Week's summary of the Power in Agriculure report produced for the 2012 Oxford Farming Conference

1. Key findings

2. Power in Agriculture
 Report looks at where the
economic, political and natural resource
power lies in world agriculture
 Asks what does this mean for UK farmers?
 Commissioned by Oxford Farming
Conference for 2012
 Carried out by SAC’s Rural Policy Centre

3. Summary of conclusions
 UK relatively small player in ag markets but
punches above weight in global power
 The most powerful countries for agriculture: 1)
United States 2) EU27 3=) China 3=) Russia 4) UK
5) Japan 6) Australasia
 Farmers in UK face significant pressures and
position as an agricultural player depends on its
ability to become significantly more productive

4. Regional Power Index for
Agriculture

5. Economic power
Economically the big power
players are the United States and
the EU-27
Major trading nations plus bases
of transnational corporations in
supply of ag products

6. Economic power cont...
 Top 20 countries account for 78% of
global exports and 70% of global
imports
 Four companies account for 75% and
90% of global grain trade
 Seven companies control virtually all
fertiliser supply

7. Top 20 importers

8. Top exporters

9. Yearly wheat imports of world’s top
importers

10. Yearly wheat export of world’s top
exporters

11. Yearly imports of beef and veal

12. Yearly exports of beef and veal

13. Where are key corporations?

14. Global wheat export predictions

15. Economic power – the future
 Power currently concentrated in North
America and Europe
 Trade projections indicate unlikely to
change up to 2020

16.  China and Brazil have clear advantages
in some commodity markets, but
corporate power is lagging
 Export capabilities of the EU-27
predicted to decline in next 10 years
unless policy changes to increase
productivity growth

17. Political power
 Political power relevant to agriculture
concentrated in hands of United
States, major EU countries and some others
within G7
 But EU will have to confront difficulties and
competition for market access from
emerging economies like China, India and
Brazil

18. Natural resources
 UK relatively poorly endowed in global terms in
critical natural resources used in agriculture
 Emerging economies better placed in terms of water
and energy endowments ie Brazil, China, Russia
 Water-intensive, fertiliser-intensive and energy-
intensive agricultural practices of European countries
are unlikely to be sustainable in long-term

19. Phosphate reserves

20. Conclusions for UK farmers
 The UK punches above its weight in terms of
trade, corporate and political power, but it is
behind Russia and China in terms of overall
power thanks to its low natural resources
 While Europe is expected to avoid the worst
effects of climate change, the UK in
particular faces challenges in terms of
land, water and non-renewable energy

21. More conclusions...
 Increasingly tight supplies mean European
production has to become more efficient if current
production is to be sustained. If the EU lost its
economic and political powers, the situation for
European agriculture could be even worse in future
 Government policy needs to look more carefully at
improving research and development to help
farmers increase production, while export
capabilities could be hit unless trade rules are
altered

22. And finally...
 While emerging economies such as China
and Brazil have advantages in certain
commodity markets, their corporate power
in agriculture is still not on a par with the
USA and the EU, especially UK, France and
Germany. However, a major challenge is to
balance corporate power with consumer and
farmer power domestically