Future Developments in the Food Industry: Probable Efforts at Vertical Integration by Food Retailers

摘要

The writer's basic proposition is that sociological bias and regulatory and social constraints placed on national, branded food processors will combine with several key trends to create vertical integration in the food industry in the 1980s. This vertical integration will be led by a combination of farmers and agricultural producers, possibly uniteing into a coalition, who will place increasing competitive pressure on national food processors. These processors will be required to find innovative marketing concepts or be pushed into an increasingly weaker position within the food industry. This report contains an introduction and an executive summary, a review of those factors which are expected to influence vertical integration, possible scenerios, and implications of interest to the FTC.