Changing Agricultural Markets: Industrialization and Vertical Coordination in the Dry Edible Bean Industry

The agricultural sector is undergoing a transformation that is altering marketing relationships to better serve customer needs. These changes are drawing consumers, processors, and farmers into closer marketing relationships, improving the flow of information up the supply chain, and enabling firms to better meet customer demand. This paper uses case studies to analyze this process as it is occurring in the dry edible bean industry. A major finding is that contracts are not necessarily used in these new marketing relationships. Other factors—such as quality monitoring, certification procedures, and reputation—were also found to be highly important.