Aggressive commercial take-overs

There is an increasing concentration of company ownership in the food production and retail markets. For example, where once the Netherlands used to have hundreds of breweries, today, 4 companies (Heineken Group, Grolsch, Interbrew, Bavaria) account for 90% of the market share. A similar development has taken place in the retail market; the supermarket chain Albert Hein owns 40% of retail outlets in the Netherlands and has a 28% share of turnover. The the diversity in products grown and sold has fallen as a result. This again has reduced the diversity of plants grown by farmers. The power of consumers to have an effect on product offer is reduced in the process. It also becomes increasingly difficult for smaller products to enter the market (because for example a group like Heineken also owns a large share of the places where beer is sold).