France's competition authority has approved a joint venture between frozen-veg suppliers Greenyard and Eureden and a merger between local agricultural cooperatives Vivadour and Terres du Sud.
In a statement, L'Autorité de la Concurrence said it had "ruled out any risk of reduced market opportunities for farmers and any risk of price increases for French customers and consumers".
Belgium-headquartered Greenyard revealed it was looking to buy a majority shareholding in fellow frozen vegetables group Gelagri Bretagne in France in March last year.
The proposed merger between Vivadour and Terres du Sud was announced in April.
The European Commission in October referred the proposed JV between Greenyard and Eureden to the L'Autorité de la Concurrence for review.
At the time, the Commission said the French regulator was “best placed” to examine the deal given the transaction’s possible impact on the French market.
The L'Autorité de la Concurrence said last week the approved joint venture between Greenyard and Eureden would see the "transfer of the activities of their respective subsidiaries, Gelagri Bretagne and Greenyard Frozen France".
The JV will link up both businesses' production and marketing of private label and branded frozen vegetables and ready meals.
Greenyard and Eureden will operate two production facilities under the JV in Loudéac and Moréac, which are both in Brittany.
The local antitrust body said in light of its probe, "it found that the joint venture's position was limited and that the merger of the parties' activities would not significantly alter the competitive landscape of the vegetable supply markets in Brittany."
It added: "The Authority also ruled out the risks of coordination of the competitive behavior of the parent companies in the markets in which they remain in competition after the operation, insofar as their market shares are very asymmetric, making it difficult to reconcile their economic incentives to coordinate."
Vivadour and Terres du Sud both grow and sell a range of food ingredients to manufacturers.
Terres du Sud’s consumer-facing brands include the poultry brand Blason d’Or, duck meat business Delmond L’Origine and fruit juice lines Vallée Verte and O’natur.
O’natur sells a “premium” range of fruit juices for specialist networks such as organic, wine merchants, delicatessen stores, café-hotel-restaurant and caterers.
Terres du Sud, made up of 6,000 members, has locations across the Dordogne, Gironde, and Lot-et-Garonne departments in south-western France.
Vivadour, has around 3,000 members, located across the Gers, Hautes-Pyrénées, Landes, Lot-et-Garonne and Haute-Garonne departments in the same part of the country.
The L'Autorité de la Concurrence said the combined business would be the 20th
largest French agricultural co-operative in terms of consolidated revenue.
It said it had "verified that farmers in the southwest will continue to have sufficient alternatives for the collection of the cereals, oilseeds, and protein crops they cultivate, especially in the Lot-et-Garonne department".
The watchdog added it had "ensured that the future cooperative would not be able to negatively affect the conditions for collecting chickens for slaughter or exert downward pressure on prices for slaughterhouses that rely on these poultry for their operations".
