Possibilities For Creating Recovery-Oriented Price Indicators For Field Pea And Field Beans Compared To Published Market Price Reporting

The economic undervaluation of legumes due to the non-inclusion of societal relevant ecosystem services is well known. This market failure can only be solved through political intervention. So far less known is the market price-related undervaluation of legumes in the currently publicly available price information systems. The main motivation for this work was the identification of price indicators to make the price determination of legumes more transparent. Three approaches have been developed for this. The first approach was based on a multiple regression with the observed prices of substitute feed like wheat and soybean meal. The second approach was based on the determination of the feed value of legumes in pig fattening using the Lohr replacement method. The third approach is to derive a price indicator from the foreign trade data as a unit value. As a result, it was found that the highest value for legumes is achieved in foreign trade, followed by the fodder value in intra-farm use. This shows that the current market price reporting of grain legumes has been permanently and systematically undervalued. Among other things, this can be explained by existing information asymmetries and thus unequal bargaining positions between trade and production. The simultaneous use of the three indicators would help to identify an appropriate level of legume remuneration, in line with their value creation potential. The calculated price indicators would thus constitute a price band within which price negotiations between two market players can take place on the basis of quality, location and time. The lower price indicators would therefore be used more as a reference by the purchasing side and the higher price indicators would be used more by the selling side as a justification for price claims. Higher prices could make the cultivation of legumes more attractive and even provide more ecosystem services to individuals and societies based on market mechanisms.