Input supplier power in global agri-food value chains

Global value chain (GVC) analysis gives insights into how powerful lead firms coordinate inter-firm relations in global industries. Yet, GVC research so far has predominantly focused on theorizing power exercised by buyer lead firms—those which select suppliers, place orders, or set requirements. In this paper, I instead advance the theorization of what I argue to constitute a particular form of power exercised by input supplier firms in agri-food industries. Focusing on feed suppliers, I examine how in the Chilean farmed salmon value chain, suppliers of inputs derive power from intangible assets like feed technologies, digital tools, knowledge about optimal input use, and control over aggregated farm-level data. I show how these intangible assets feed into a sort of bipolar governance structure, in which two power centers at the retail and input node reinforce each other. I term this phenomenon a “double-lead firm dynamic” and suggest this dynamic may be a core driver for contemporary value squeezes present in many agri-food GVCs.