Agrifood Sector Studies

The Agrifood Sector Studies series looks at specific agrifood sectors within a country or region.

Research studies have been undertaken in China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa, Turkey, Poland and Zambia. These countries represent both a broad geographic coverage and a range of stages of market concentration. Sectors studied are horticulture, dairy and meat.

The research comprises inter-linked, modular studies, taking elements from both a national (macro) context and 'meso studies' which look at the organisation of the entire supply chain. At the national and sub-national levels, food industry change is explored through key informant interviews, commodity value chain analysis, and product and factor market assessments. At community level, institutional, social, and organizational contexts are examined using Participatory Rural Appraisal methods.

The aim is to look at the mechanisms (including both policy and non-policy reasons) behind the following two big questions:

(1) How are food industry segments restructuring, and why?

(a) the general context of food sector restructuring

(b) the national-meso (sectoral) and local-meso (study zone) context.

(2) How is the interface between the actors in the food industry, and the farmers, restructuring?

(a) How is the procurement system of the buyers (the segments of the food industry) transforming

(b) Why is it transforming?

A brief description of each Sector Study is given below along with a link to the executive summary and full report download.

Separate (micro level) reports on results of surveys at the farm enterprise level are being added, to determine the impact of these changes on primary producers.

All of these papers should be treated as working papers -- final versions will be posted later in 2008.

Meso-level restructuring of the food industry in developing countries: Synthesis Report - MesoStudy (Draft)

 

 

 

 

Patterns in and determinants and effects of farmers' marketing strategies in developing countries: Synthesis Report - MicroStudy (Draft)

 

 

 

 


Agrifood Sector Studies Poland: The Dairy sector in Poland

The share of total milk production being delivered to dairy-processing companies in 2005 was 76 per cent, has increased continuously since 2000. The share of milk producers who are delivering milk to the processing sector was only 41 per cent in 2005 (48 per cent if we include direct milk sales to the market), meaning that more than half of milk producers in Poland are outside of the commercial dairy supply chain.

We observed a rapid consolidation process in the milk-production sector. With the number of dairy cows decreasing continuously since the start of the transition period, the share of dairy cows on farms with a herd size of at least 10 cows increased from only 15 per cent in 1996 to 40 per cent in 2005. The share of milk delivered by this group of farms already exceeds 50 per cent of total milk deliveries.


Agrifood Sector Studies South Africa: Restructuring Food Markets South Africa - dynamics within the tomato subsector

The agricultural sector plays an important role in the South African economy and the annual gross domestic product for South African agriculture in 2004 was R67.68 billion. South Africa is not only self-sufficient in virtually all major agricultural products, but is also a net food exporter. Important sectors of the South African agricultural economy include broilers, beef, maize, milk deciduous fruit, vegetables, citrus fruit, eggs, sugar cane and potatoes. South Africa's national food market, like much in South Africa, is characterised by dualism with a very well developed, highly sophisticated food marketing system on the one hand and a well-organized informal food marketing system on the other hand. The highly sophisticated food marketing system is dominated by a small number of retail groups who distribute food through a variety of supermarket formats located in the major cities and towns of South Africa. Conversely, the informal food marketing system distributes food through general dealers, cafes, spaza shops, street vendors, hawkers and tuck shops and street corner stalls in areas like townships and former homelands where supermarket retail outlets are absent or have been until now.

 

Agrifood Sector Studies Indonesia: Restructuring of agrifood chains in Indonesia - national and local meso study

The retail and processing 'symbiosis‘ is a key part of food market restructuring in Indonesia. The rapid growth of the supermarket sector was triggered by the removal of the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) restriction in 1998 and complemented by the growth of the urban population and investment in property. The fresh fruit and vegetable sales (FFV) share in supermarket sales increase very rapidly in a short time, and a very high proportion of those fresh fruit and vegetable sales are of imported produce - at least double to triple the imports share in supermarket fresh fruit and vegetable sales in comparable developing countries.


Agrifood Sector Studies Indonesia: The case of potato farmers in West Java

The retail and processing 'symbiosis‘ is a key part of food market restructuring in Indonesia. The rapid growth of the supermarket sector was triggered by the removal of the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) restriction in 1998 and complemented by the growth of the urban population and investment in property. The fresh fruit and vegetable sales (FFV) share in supermarket sales increase very rapidly in a short time, and a very high proportion of those fresh fruit and vegetable sales are of imported produce - at least double to triple the imports share in supermarket fresh fruit and vegetable sales in comparable developing countries.

 

Agrifood Sector Studies Indonesia: The case of tomato farmers in West Java

Horticultural Producers and Supermarket Development in Indonesia. World Bank/Indonesia, June 2007. Research co-funded by the Regoverning Markets programme 

 

 

 


Agrifood Sector Studies Mexico: The strawberry marketing network in Michoacán, Mexico - A structural view

Strawberries are a highly important crop, economically and socially speaking, in the State of Michoacán in Mexico. The strawberry business there is currently in the midst of a process of transition from commodity-type production towards a dynamic industry capable of creating value added. A significant policy challenge in this sector is thus to integrate the strawberry producers into the market's new trends.

 

Also available in Spanish from RIMISP:

La red de comercialización de la fresa en Michoacán, México: una mirada estructural


 

 


Agrifood Sector Studies Mexico: Modern market channels and strawberry farmers in Michoacán, Mexico - Meso study report

This study examined the participation of small-scale farmers in strawberry production in modern market channels versus traditional market channels in Mexico. Farm size was found to be a determinant of participation in the modern channel. However,  this study does concentrate on the upper stratum of the small-farm category, rather than large-scale farmers (as there are no large-scale farmers in the sample). Moreover, non-land capital assets were found to be an important ‘threshold investment' for farmers to enter the modern channels. Farmers in the modern channel have higher net incomes from strawberry production and use more capital-intensive technologies.


Agrifood Sector Studies Zambia: Restructuring food markets in Zambia - Dynamics in the beef and chicken

The report presents the results of a study of the restructuring that took place in the beef and chicken subsectors. The areas of focus of the study were the Western and Southern provinces for beef and Lusaka province for chickens. The aim of the study was to answer two main questions: Why and how are food industry sectors restructuring? How is the interface between the actors in the food industry, and the farmers, restructuring: that is, how is the procurement system of the buyers (the segments of the food industry) transforming? And why?

 


Agrifood Sector Studies China: Restructuring agrifood markets in China - The horticulture sector

This report concentrates on identifying the determinants and consequences of restructuring the horticulture sector in China. The analysis is conducted on three levels: macro (policy issues and the national business environment), meso (the different chain segments and villages) and micro (household level). Due to space limitations and the timing of the research, the linkages between the first two levels are analysed in this paper. The micro study is available as a seperate report.

 


Agrifood Sector Studies Turkey: Restructuring of agrifood chains in Turkey - The produce sector (Part A - meso study)

Using the tomato market as a case study, the report analyses the restructuring of the fresh produce markets from three dimensions.  The drivers that cause the exclusion/inclusion of small farmers in the restructured fresh produce market are also explored.  The actual inclusion/exclusion of small farmers in the restructured fresh produce market is also evaluated.

 

 

Agrifood Sector studies Turkey: Restructuring of agrifood chains in Turkey - The produce sector (Part B - micro study)

This report aims to understand the reasons behind producers' marketing channel choice, and the effects of those choices on production and returns to producing tomatoes. The report is organized as follows. Section 2 summarizes the findings of the mesostudy and their consequences for the micro-study. Section 3 presents the sampling method and questionnaire, while Section 4 contains descriptive statistics from the survey and identifies the most important variables. Section 5 sets the empirical strategy and econometrical specifications. Finally, Section 6 discusses the results and concludes.

 


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