The meeting addressed the impact of transnational corporations and digital platforms on competition in food markets.
Antitrust regulators met on February 4 at a session of the BRICS Working Group for the Research of Competition Issues in Food Markets, co-chaired by the competition authorities of Russia and South Africa. The meeting was organized by the International BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre and the Egyptian Competition Authority.
During the session, participants addressed the most pressing issues of antitrust regulation in food and agricultural markets, discussed approaches to assessing economic concentration control, and examined the review of antitrust cases in the context of the growing influence of transnational corporations on global trade. Particular attention was paid to the methodology for conducting a joint study on competition issues in global grain trade.
The study will be conducted following the report “From Fields to Futures: Competition, Financialization and Digitalization in Global Grain Value Chains,” prepared in 2025 by the Working Group with the support of the BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre. According to Andrey Tsyganov, Deputy Head of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), the report’s key findings highlight the need for parallel investigations into potential anticompetitive practices by digital platforms facilitating cartel agreements in the global grain value chain, such as Covantis and TRACT. The report also underscores the importance of strengthening enforcement cooperation, including information sharing on mergers and ongoing investigations, conducting “parallel screening,” and jointly tracking price anomalies for key commodities.
Tsyganov outlined the FAS’s experience in regulating agricultural markets and the measures taken by the authority to ensure food security in Russia. Expanding on his remarks, he emphasized the practical value of the report, noting that the FAS supports the joint sectoral study and is ready to contribute to the initiative as well as share its enforcement experience with partners.
The new study is expected to help BRICS competition authorities identify common threats to competition and harmonize approaches to their prevention. Tsyganov stressed that practical cooperation, joint research, and coordinated actions by BRICS antitrust agencies would enable the development of effective measures and well-balanced decisions to promote competition in global food markets.
Source: FAS
