Smaller produce growers wary of proposed Kroger-Albertson's merger; groups try to block it and similar deals

(Photo by Scott Olson, Getty Images)

For many small to mid-sized produce farmers, dealing with corporate squeezing has been an increasing struggle for the past 30 years, but the potential sale of Albertson's to Kroger could further pinch their limited access to markets, possibly wedging out some farmers while giving consumers fewer options, reports Lisa Held of Civil Eats. 

Case in point is Shad Dasher, a self-described "onion man," who is a "third-generation Vidalia grower in Glennville, Ga., a small town in one of the 20 counties where the special sweet onions are produced. But unlike his father and grandfather before him, he’s urging his five children to consider other professions," Held writes. "That’s because with 40 acres he can’t make a profit selling his onions to supermarkets anymore. Dasher told Held, "It used to be that a small to medium-sized farmer could carry his produce to a mom-and-pop grocery store chain and bicker with the produce manager, and you’d have your fresh produce sold within 20 miles of the farm. . . . the circle is getting smaller and smaller to sell to.”

Vidalia onion farmers are an example of the challenge huge retailers present. Held reports: "Cliff Riner, chairman of the Vidalia Onion Committee, said that in the mid-2000s, there were about 200 Vidalia farmers. Now, about half of them are gone, he estimates, but the 100 that are left are farming the same number of total acres in addition to bringing in onions from South America. It’s a familiar story seen all over the country: there are fewer, larger farms, and the smaller ones are being squeezed out."

The Kroger-Albertson's merger "would be one of the biggest deals in grocery history," Held writes. "While a wide range of advocacy groups have been pushing back on the merger based on claims it will hurt workers and consumers, less attention has been paid to the impact on farmers, who, along with advocacy groups are speaking out about how the deal could worsen what has already become an impossible retail market for many small- and mid-size producers."

Held says farmers have been given two choices: grow big to compete, or throw in the towel. She writes, "Susan Pavlin, a food system expert who has worked with various food hubs and cooperatives, labeled the current options 'two parallel systems,' and explained that most food-system reform has been focused on building regional markets that support smaller farms, but those markets are still comparably tiny." Pavlin told Held, "The cost of things will never come down in the regional, small farm system if there’s not some scale, and to have scale you have to have a certain number of buyers. If there are a few big grocers that have 100 percent carte blanche, then there’s never going to be pressure to merge the models.”

The support of regional farming needs multiple prongs, Held writes: "It’s why advocates support the Biden administration’s recent initiatives to invest in regional food systems, but say those actions must be paired with more aggressive antitrust regulation, including blocking mergers like the Kroger-Albertson’s deal and more continuous attention to policing corporate concentration in the food system."