Do farmers benefit from participating in specialty markets and cooperatives? The case of coffee marketing in Costa Rica1

Historically low prices in the conventional coffee market have caused financial and social hardship among coffee farmers. In the face of this crisis, specialty markets have attracted the attention of the international donor community. These market segments have shown consistent growth over the last decade and exhibit price premiums in international markets. Therefore, if higher prices are passed on to farmers, access to specialty markets could help to alleviate the crisis brought on by low prices in the conventional sector. The present study attempts to identify the factors that determine farmers' participation in specialized markets and whether participation in these markets leads to higher prices for farmers. A two-stage model is used to analyze farmers' marketing decisions and their effect on the prices received. This procedure allows us to control for the endogeneity bias introduced by the marketing choice. Our results indicate that farmers participating in the specialty coffee segment do in fact receive higher prices than those participating in conventional channels. Additionally, we find that participation in cooperatives has a positive impact on the probability that a farmer chooses to grow specialty coffee and analogously on the prices that they receive. Based on these results, it seems that efforts to increase participation in the specialty coffee segment and in cooperatives would help to lessen some of the hardships brought on by low prices in the conventional coffee sector.     

Impact of cooperatives on smallholders' commercialization behavior: evidence from Ethiopia

This article examines the impact of marketing cooperatives on smallholder commercialization of cereals using detailed household data in rural Ethiopia. We use the strong government role in promoting the establishment of cooperatives to justify the use of propensity score matching to compare households that are cooperative members to similar households in comparable areas without cooperatives. The analysis reveals that although cooperatives obtain higher prices for their members, they are not associated with a significant increase in the overall share of cereal production sold commercially by their members. However, these average results hide considerable heterogeneity across households. In particular, we find that smaller farmers tend to reduce their marketed output as a result of higher prices, whereas the opposite is true for larger farmers.     

Optimal Investment in Transportation Infrastructure When Middlemen Have Market Power: A Developing-Country Analysis

Transportation costs and buyer market power reduce prices and income received by farmers in developing countries. Transportation costs directly affect the marketing margin and also exacerbate market power by limiting farmers' access to buyers. This article develops a multistage spatial model to determine optimal investment in transportation improvements, taking account of impacts on marketing costs and competition. The beneficial impact of investments from farmers' perspective is mainly through enhanced competition, meaning significant under-investment may occur if this effect is ignored. However, the optimal investment depends on the relative importance of transportation costs; in some settings, transportation improvements reduce farm prices because buyers rationally over-compensate farmers for these costs.     

Formation and adaptation of reference prices in grain marketing: an experimental study

This study aimed to explore how producers’ reference prices are formed and adapt over time, and how they affect marketing decisions. Results indicate that producers focus on three major variables to form their reference prices: the current market price, the highest price to date, and their expectation about price behavior. Further, they update their reference prices during the marketing season mainly in response to changes in current market prices, their own expectations about price behavior, and the general price trend. Finally, our findings suggest that producers’ marketing decisions are based on the spread between current market price and reference price, the general market trend and price expectation.     

基于供销合作社系统的武汉市农产品流通对策研究

为充分利用供销合作社网络完善武汉市农产品流通供应链体系,文章对供销合作总社近10年来的销售业绩进行提取分析,结果表明:供销社是流通领域中符合体制内运作的重要组织,在农产品流通领域中是解决"买难"、"卖难"的可行性方案,是符合农民利益和提高农民收入的重要路径;创建以供销合作社为核心的农产品交易体系,必将对武汉市的农产品流通具有非常显著的促进作用;供销合作社所占有的市场份额所形成的品牌效应将对农产品流通体系的完善有着直接的正向促进作用。以供销合作社作为研究视角,并提出基于武汉市供销合作社的农产品流通系统需要从建立农产品加工生产专用服务体系、加快供销合作社的农产品流通速度以及合理开发农产品流通电商营销渠道等3个方面入手,减少不必要的生产销售环节的同时,加强各供销合作社的合作规模,以切实建立起便利惠民的农产品流通体系,实现再生产环节中农户经济权益的有效保护。     

Cooperative Cotton Marketing, Liberalization and 'Civil Society' in Tanzania

This paper describes developments in marketing cooperatives in Tanzania's major cotton-growing area between 1991 and 1997, when they underwent voluntarization, lost state and donor financial support, and (from 1995) faced strong competition from private cotton buyers/ginners. After summarizing the history of marketing cooperatives in the country, the paper distinguishes the main dimensions of the current changes and sums up their outcomes. It then examines the main socio-economic and political dimensions of these outcomes before exploring current developments with reference to broader changes in 'civil society' and organizational life in rural Tanzania.     

实际价格、粮食可获性与农业生产决策——基于农户模型的分析框架和实证检验

按照市场一价定律的逻辑,所有生产者和消费者在市场上面临同一个价格并据此作出生产或消费决策。然而,农产品生产者和消费者的双重身份却导致农户在同一个农产品市场上得到或付出不同的价格,其差异主要取决于运销成本。因此,影响农户生产或消费决策的是其实际获得或付出的价格而非统一的市场价格。此外,出于对粮食安全的追求,农户所在地区的...     

Market integration of domestic and imported seafood: Insights from the Sydney Fish Market*

Australia has experienced a significant increase in seafood imports over the past two decades. Concurrently, Australian seafood producers have raised concerns that the low market prices of imported fish may negatively affect the prices of domestically produced seafood and, subsequently, the profitability of the Australian fishing industries. To validate this concern, this study examines the relationship between prices of domestically produced seafood and imported fish. Price data from the Sydney Fish Market (SFM), Australia’s largest auction wholesale fish market and fish import data are used for a cointegration analysis which is conducted using the bivariate Johansen test. Results indicate that prices of most domestic species traded within the SFM are not cointegrated, implying that they largely develop independently of each other. However, imported fish, particularly fresh imports, were found to be cointegrated with Australian produced fresh fish supplies traded on the SFM. Although the law of one price (LOP) was only confirmed to hold for some price pairs, the results suggest a partial substitution relationship between imports and domestically caught fish. This implies that prices of domestically produced fish within the Australian market are likely impacted by price dynamics within the international seafood market.     

Analysis of a supply-control program under uncertainty and imperfect competition: Chinese cabbage in Taiwan

Researchers have often attributed the farm–wholesale price spread, after adjusting for marketing costs, as compensation for marketing firms' risk bearing. However, price spreads in excess of marketing costs can also be due to marketing firms' exercise of market power. In settings where both imperfect competition and marketer risk aversion are plausible, a modeling framework must be sufficiently general to accommodate both types of behavior. This article develops and estimates such a model in the context of fresh produce marketing and develops the implications for analysis of supply‐control programs. The model is applied to the production and marketing of Chinese cabbage in Taiwan and specifically to the analysis of supply‐control programs implemented in this industry by the Taiwanese government. The empirical results provide little support for the hypothesis that marketing firms exhibit risk averse behavior, but they do show that marketing firms exercise oligopsony power in procurement of the product from farmers, and that this power is positively related to the quantity supplied in each market period. This provides a heretofore unexplored impetus for supply controls intended to raise producer incomes. However, such controls are also rendered less effective by imperfect competition because marketing firms capture part of the benefits from supply reduction.     

我国排污权交易现状及后续市场建设理念

结合我国社会主义计划经济到市场经济体制历程的特殊性,首先提出排污生产合作社的概念,通过国家倡导生产合作社,提升合作社内部的技术水平,共同扩大排污权获得的规模,提升净化污染物的技术手段。虽然这种合作社由国家倡导,但是必须强调这种合作社应具备竞争性,即可允许企业自由进入这种联盟,政府通过一些排污权交易的优惠政策给予扶持。同时市场需要一个自由的交易平台,相应配套的法律体系和金融体系的建立,更有利于市场上排污权这种资产的使用和流通。     

Buyer preferences for sheep and goats in southern Nigeria: A hedonic price analysis

A survey of two rural markets in southwest Nigeria over 14 months showed that supplies, sales and prices of sheep and goats varied widely during the period with a sharp peak during the Muslim festival of' Eid-el-Kabir and a smaller peak during the Christmas-New Year period. Local West African Dwarf (WAD) sheep and goats and northern Y'ankasa sheep and Red Sokoto goats were traded in the markets and animals were purchased for rearing, trading, ceremonies, butchering/catering, sacrifice, and festivals. There were significant differences between species/breeds purchased for various purposes. A hedonic price model was fitted to determine factors influencing price. After adjustments were made for age, weight, sex, time of transaction and market, WAD sheep commanded higher prices than WAD goats and Red Sokoto goats for all purposes except for butchering/catering; Red Sokoto goats commanded similar or lower prices than WAD goats depending on the purpose for purchase; and Y'ankasa sheep, principally purchased for the Eid-el-Kabir festival, commanded marginally higher prices than WAD sheep. The market share of WAD sheep is currently small and is under competition from northern sheep and goats, so increased production of WAD sheep in the south will benefit both producers and consumers in the area. In general, the results indicate that buyers have preferences for specific breeds and species for specific purposes, so producers and sellers may benefit by targeting specific buyer categories and times of the year.     

Evolving Marketing Channels for Beef and Lamb in the United Kingdom-

This paper investigates the effects of: (1) recent changes to food safety legislation; (2) increasing consumer concerns over animal welfare; and (3) further market integration in the European Union on British agribusiness firms involved in marketing beef and lamb. It is hypothesized that these changes will alter the transaction costs associated with marketing these products. As a result, there is likely to be a reduction in the number of animals sold for slaughter through traditional auction markets and an increase in direct contracting or strategic alliances between supermarkets and farmers' marketing cooperatives.     

环境适应性视角下的农民合作社治理结构重塑研究

[目的]结合对农民合作社发展所面临的内外部环境分析,探索基于环境适应性的农民合作社治理结构重塑方式。[方法]运用制度分析方法,对传统农民合作社治理所面临的"环境适应性"挑战进行分析,并构建基于环境适应性的农民合作社治理结构重塑的理论框架。[结果]农民合作社发展所面临的内外部环境正发生深刻变化,表现在市场竞争、消费需求、政策法律和技术、合作社内部管理等诸多方面。传统合作社的治理结构已无法适应内外部环境的变化,必须要进行产权结构重塑才能应对变化的环境,更好地履行合作社的职能和提升市场竞争力。[结论]农民合作社的治理结构重塑应以产权制度设计为核心。(1)明晰所有权,设计合理的合作社规模和有条件的社员资格,允许合作社股权交易;(2)明晰控制权,针对不同类型的决策事项设置不同的投票制度;(3)明晰收益权,设计兼顾效率与公平的剩余分配制度。     

Constraints to the sustainability of a ‘systematised’ approach to livestock marketing amongst smallholder cattle producers in South Africa

Commercialization of smallholder agriculture in South Africa is underpinned by reforms to improve livestock off-take in communal areas and engage smallholder farmers with formal markets. To achieve this, Custom Feeding Programmes (CFPs) were established to improve the condition of communal cattle prior to their sale into formal markets and to ‘systematise’ the informal marketing of cattle in communal areas by enabling participants to achieve higher informal market prices. We evaluate the sustainability of eight CFPs located in Eastern Cape Province in terms of their ability to add value to smallholder cattle production and encourage market participation. Communities with CFPs achieved a 16.6% mean cattle off-take rate, substantially higher than in most communal systems. Furthermore, cattle sold through CFPs attained a 17% higher mean selling price than those sold through other marketing channels. However, these benefits were mainly realized by better-off farmers with larger cattle herds and greater ability to transport animals to and from CFPs. More marginalized farmers, particularly women, had low participation. CFPs also face challenges to their sustainability, including inconsistent feed and water supplies, poor infrastructure and high staff turnover. Key to enhancing participation in CFPs, will be improving the way they are supported and embedded within communities.     

The Matching Problem (and Inventories) in Private Negotiation

This study examines laboratory market outcomes under alternative matching risk scenarios and advance production. Limited access and/or asymmetry in the number of buyers and sellers cause a matching problem. When sellers hold inventory before sale and there is buyer concentration, prices are about 23% below the competitive level and close to the predicted monopsony price. The bargaining advantage shifts to buyers in this market environment. Sellers can benefit by creating alliances or cooperatives to increase their bargaining position for price and overcome poor access to buyers.     

Is Exchange Rate Pass-Through in Pork Meat Export Prices Constrained by the Supply of Live Hogs?

The impact of lags in the production and marketing of agricultural products on the degree of exchange rate pass-through in export prices is investigated. The predictions of the theoretical model are tested by investigating Canadian pork export prices in the United States and Japan. The empirical methodology accounts for unit root and cointegration using the dynamic seemingly unrelated regression framework and a minimum distance estimator. Predetermined hog supplies have a statistically significant impact on export prices of two out of three Canadian provinces. The degree of misspecification involved with standard pass-through models that do not account for production lags is also illustrated.     

Productivity and Environmental Performance in Marketing Cooperatives: An Analysis of the Spanish Horticultural Sector

The paper analyses the productivity of marketing cooperatives incorporating environmental inputs/outputs. In the European agriculture, expectations for attaining sustainable and competitive agriculture rely to a great extent on the cooperative sector's ability to adapt to new market conditions. These challenges have led marketing cooperatives in the fruit and vegetables sector to consider improvements in productivity and sound environmental performance. The study analyses the total factor productivity related to environmental variables in this sector using a parametric‐stochastic approach and panel data on Spanish cooperatives over the period 1994–2002. Additionally, the determinants of environmental productivity are examined econometrically. The estimates obtained show an increase in efficiency for the period under study and a relationship between productivity changes and management factors, such as labour quality, capital intensity and environmental spillover.     

农户参加农民专业合作社行为影响因素研究 ———以日照市为例

农民专业合作社既可以降低农户独自经营的生产成本和面临的风险,又能提高农产品的市场价格,但是目前我国农户加入农民专业合作社的比重较低。通过实地调查和实证研究,该文分析了影响我国农户参加农民专业合作社行为的影响因素,并给出了相应的政策建议。即加大宣传,增强农户对农民专业合作社的认知;加大对专业合作社的支持力度;转变追求数量目标,集中力量重点支持规范合作社做强做好。     

DYNAMIC FARM—LEVEL PLANNING MODEL FOR BEEF FEEDLOT PRODUCTION AND MARKETING

The study is aimed at formulating and empirically applying a dynamic farm-level model for the planning of optimal beef feedlot production and marketing strategies. A dynamic programming (DP) model is used to calculate the optimal feeding schedule (i.e. liveweight gain sequence), market liveweight and stock replacement for a single bull calf over a one-year planning period, taking into account seasonal fluctuations of planning parameters such as beef prices, feeding costs, nutritional requirements, and stock replacement costs and obtainability. The DP model includes a linear programming (LP) subroutine for calculating least-cost feed rations. The planning model is empirically applied using data and assumptions representative offeedlots in the Coastal Plain region of Israel where most feedlot production and marketing decisions are made by ‘rule-of-thumb’ using set liveweight gain sequences, market standards and stock replacement decisions. The empirical findings indicate that the profitability of feedlot production and marketing could be increased by an average of 10% over that obtained from ‘rule-of-thumb’ decision rules.     

Corruption in agricultural processing firms: A comparison of cooperatives and investor-owned firms

This paper examines managerial corruption in cooperatives (co-ops) and investor-owned firms (IOFs), including its impact on prices and farmer welfare. Even when co-op managers have greater incentives to engage in corruption because of the co-op's larger production, the resulting corruption is not sufficient to offset the competitive effect that co-ops exert vis-à-vis IOFs. This conclusion holds regardless of the functional form of the production function, the farm input supply curve, and the demand curve for the processed product. In addition to showing the robustness of the competition effect, the paper provides a highly flexible modeling framework that can be used to examine other co-op behavior questions.