Inequality in agri-food chains: the Global South produces the food, but the Global North keeps the wealth
In the global agri-food system, most agricultural goods are produced in the Global South but value is captured by countries of the Global North through growth and control of the post farmgate sectors.
This is shown by a study from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), which reveals that between 1995 and 2020, non-agricultural sectors absorbed much of the value added in global agri-food systems. These sectors are disproportionately dominated by countries of the Global North.
The research, published in the journal Global Food Security and led by ICTA-UAB researcher Meghna Goyal together with Jason Hickel, also from ICTA-UAB, and Praveen Jha from Jawaharlal Nehru University, India, analyses for the first time on a global scale the distribution of economic value in agri-food chains over a 25-year period. The results show that, although the Global South has increased its share of agricultural production, countries of the North continue to capture a disproportionate share of income from higher-value sectors such as processing, logistics, finance, and services.
The study also notes that a substantial portion of revenue is recorded in low-tax jurisdictions with little agricultural production, suggesting that value-addition is recorded according to profit-maximizing strategies, rather than according to actual production or employment. This demonstrates that value chains in agri-food systems reinforce structural inequalities through the international division of labor. Countries such as Singapore and Hong Kong capture up to 60 and 27 times more from the global agri-food system than the value of their agricultural production.
Researchers warn of the urgent need for economic sovereignty for the Global South to address structural unequal exchange in the global agri-food system.
"Value capture strategies reshape supply chains. Our findings alert us to its potentially negative consequences for development and equity for farming, and the Global South economies”, says Meghna Goyal, main author of the study.
ICTA-UAB researcher and coauthor Jason Hickel states that "this is the first study to measure the global distribution of value in the agri-food system, and the results are damning. The people who do most of the agricultural production, which sustains global civilization, do not get a fair share of food-system incomes."
Article reference: Meghna Goyal et al., Global Food Security, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2025.100883