Columbia Grain in Portland, owned by Japan's Marubeni

Marubeni owns Columbia Grain in Portland, where members of ILWU Local 8 load grain, and Gavilon is an owner of Kalama Export downriver, where members of ILWU Local 21 do the same.

Chinese regulators on Tuesday gave a qualified green light to Japanese trading house Marubeni Corp’s (8002.T) $5.6 billion (£3.67 billion) purchase of U.S. grain merchant Gavilon, imposing stiff conditions that underscore Beijing’s anxiety over food security.

The deal was announced almost a year ago but has been held up for months by Beijing’s close scrutiny of the combined group, which would have a leading role in supplying soybeans and other grains to China. U.S. and European antitrust authorities had already cleared the transaction.

In a posting on its website, the Anti-Monopoly Bureau within the Ministry of Commerce said that the merger may “eliminate or limit competition in China’s soybean importing market.”

As a result, the ministry said Gavilon and Marubeni would be required to maintain separate, independent trading units when selling soybeans to China, with strict firewalls to prevent any exchange of market information. Marubeni would have to buy beans from Gavilon’s vast U.S. network at arm’s length.

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