Abstract CoMark Equity Alliance (CEA) lets cooperatives gain the advantages of economies of size in marketing grain without giving up local governance. This study estimates the financial benefit to Oklahoma cooperatives from joining CEA. Knowing the benefit of this alliance is important to other cooperatives considering a similar arrangement. Since previous research showed that joining CEA had little effect on prices paid, the focus is on net returns. The method used is a partial budget. First, firms not in the alliance were interviewed to determine their returns per bushel of grain handled. Firms not joining the alliance had special situations that allowed them to pay less competitive prices and thus distribute more through patronage dividends. The components of the partial budget included (i) the difference in gross returns, (ii) basis difference, (iii) transportation cost differences, (iv) interest cost paid by the alliance, (v) savings on merchandiser salary, and (vi) accounting costs absorbed by the alliance. The estimated net benefit from joining CEA was $0.16/bu.
Abstract This study contributes to the industrial organization literature on vertical coordination and contract governance in agri-food systems by providing a multi-dimensional empirical assessment of a processing tomato supply chain in Upper Northeastern Thailand, where smallholder farmers engage processors through contract farming arrangements. Building on transaction cost economics and principal-agent theory, a comprehensive measurement framework comprising 56 performance indicators organized across nine dimensions was developed and applied to 346 contracted farmers across four provinces during the 2024–2025 production season. Stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) was employed to estimate farm-level technical efficiency, while Spearman rank correlation analysis examined linkages between relational governance dimensions and farm-level outcomes. Results reveal substantial vertical coordination failures, particularly in joint decision-making (mean = 2.08 ± 1.09) and problem-solving (mean = 1.77 ± 1.11), alongside pronounced market power asymmetries where farmers report high processor leverage (RBA9 = 3.49) but limited bargaining capacity (RBA8 = 2.46). Traceability infrastructure is underdeveloped (only 31.13 % of farmers). Mean technical efficiency is 69.10 %, indicating a 30.9 % output gap attributable to managerial and agronomic constraints, with substantial provincial variation ranging from 55.47 % in Nakhon Phanom to 89.86 % in Buengkan. The Cobb-Douglas production frontier reveals increasing returns to scale (Σβ = 2.015), while farming experience, furrow irrigation, and harvest frequency significantly reduce technical inefficiency. Critically, information sharing (r s = 0.124, p = 0.021) and resource allocation fairness (r s = 0.114, p = 0.034) are significantly associated with farm profit but not with technical efficiency, establishing a dual-pathway finding: relational governance improves economic outcomes through market-side mechanisms such as improved pricing, reduced transaction costs, and more equitable rent distribution whereas technical efficiency is driven by agronomic factors orthogonal to governance quality. Policy recommendations address contract design reform, producer organization development, targeted extension services, traceability infrastructure investment, and competitive market structure oversight.
Abstract Despite heavily relying on and employing more than half of its total labour force in the agricultural sector, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) experiences the highest levels of food insecurity and the highest undernourished children in the world, with rising levels of hunger. The purpose of this paper was to investigate the agricultural sector effects of environmental and institutional quality in SSA from 2002 to 2021. Data was analyzed using the Fixed Effects estimator with Driscoll Kraay Standard Error approach. The key findings reveal that ceteris paribus a 1 % increase in CO2 emissions associated with 0.366 %, 0.244 % and 0.198 % reduction in agriculture value added (AVA) in the low-income (LIC), lower-middle-income (LMI) and upper-middle-income (UMI) categories respectively. The corresponding reactions from a 1 % increase in energy intensity are 0.556 %, 0.174 % and 0.37 % for the respective income groups. A disaggregation of the agricultural production showed that the crop, food and livestock production models suffer differentially from increases in these environmental quality indicators. On the other hand, a 1-unit increase in institutional quality corresponds to increases of about 5.1 %, 7.8 % and 13.8 % in AVA in LIC, LMI and UMI respectively. In terms of size, CO2 emissions impact largest the LIC, whereas energy intensity and institutional quality affect largely the UMI group, considering all the agricultural indicators. While higher energy intensity worsens the adverse impact of carbon emissions on agriculture, stronger institutional quality weakens it. Policies to curb carbon emissions, reduce energy intensity, and strengthen institutional quality would benefit AVA, FPI, CPI and LPI.
Abstract Research on the determinants of coffee prices is scarce. In this study, we examine how coffee prices are associated with two key coffee attributes – taste quality and roast level – within a price hedonic framework. We report three main findings. First, taste quality has a positive but non-linear effect on price: Among coffee types below the threshold for superior quality, an additional quality point has only a modest effect, whereas among superior-quality coffees, the same increase in quality results in a substantially larger price premium. Second, roast level has a positive and roughly linear effect on price, indicating that lighter roasts are more expensive than darker ones. Third, both the non-linear quality effect and the linear roast-level effect vary across the coffee price distribution, with substantially larger effects among the most expensive coffees than among the least expensive. Although these findings show how quality and roast level shape price formation in the specialty coffee market, their novel character also suggests that more research is needed on the determinants of coffee prices.
Abstract Food industries drive economic growth, yet their substantial within-sector variation remains poorly understood. This study examines heterogeneous socio-economic impacts across nine food industry sectors using continuous difference-in-differences methodology applied to panel data from Catalonia (2015–2022), covering 64 industries economy-wide. Our continuous treatment captures establishment growth intensity, enabling sector-specific impact estimation. The analysis reveals high heterogeneity: Other Food Products generates employment increases substantially above the economy-wide average, while Dairy Products exhibits large negative effects. Spillover analysis was inconclusive due to severe multicollinearity among related sector measures, leaving cross-sector transmission as an open question. Value chain analysis reveals upstream suppliers generate significant multiplier effects across downstream industries. Robustness checks – including alternative weighting schemes, COVID-period sensitivity analysis, and export intensity controls – confirm that the observed heterogeneity is structural rather than driven by measurement choices or external shocks. These findings suggest that uniform industrial policies may be inadequate for the food industry, highlighting the potential value of differentiated sector-specific approaches. The methodological framework provides a replicable template for examining heterogeneous Industry 4.0 impacts across industries and regions.
