Reuters reveals Indian carrot farmers helped start price-fixing probe into global seed firms

Reuters reported exclusively that an Indian antitrust investigation into suspected price collusion by some prominent global agricultural firms was triggered by farmers who complained about excessive pricing of imported carrot seeds. A group representing about 1,500 farmers in the mountainous Nilgiri district of Tamil Nadu, a top carrot-growing state in southern India, petitioned the watchdog in 2019 alleging that an “unfair profit margin” was being charged on the carrot seeds. As part of the investigation, the Competition Commission of India conducted a multi-city search and seizure operation on Sept. 8 at the local units of Germany’s BASF, France’s Vilmorin & Cie and other firms.