The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Thursday sued two top pesticide manufacturers for allegedly entering into exclusive contracts with distributors that kept prices paid by farmers artificially high.
The consumer watchdog agency was motivated to bring the case in part because rising costs and supply chain disruptions from Russia's invasion of Ukraine have put economic pressure on farmers, an agency official told Reuters.paid distributors not to offer farmers generic pesticides, herbicides and fungicides after the companies' patents on six chemical ingredients expired, the FTC said.
Syngenta spokesman Saswato Das said the arrangements were customer discounts that were "part of a voluntary and industry-standard program that has been in place for decades" in the industry. Corteva spokesperson Kris Allen said in an email that the company believes the complaint has no basis.
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