Workshop in Beijing: Emerging Links between Retail Transformation and Agrifood Trade in Asia

A workshop on "Emerging Links between Retail Transformation and Agrifood Trade in Asia" will be held in association with the meetings of the International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium (IATRC) in Beijing from July 8-9,

Major Sponsors are Michigan State University and Farm Foundation/USDA-ERS. The Regoverning Markets Program is a Supporting Sponsor, and program partners from SE Asia will present insights gathered in part through Regoverning Markets activities. The Workshop keynote on the "Asia Supermarket Revolution and Potential Trade Implications" will be delivered by Thomas REARDON, Professor of Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University, Co-Director, IFPRI/MSU Joint Program on Markets in Asia, and a Regoverning Markets research leader.

There are also speakers from Carrefour and Metro. The speakers will focus on fresh products, and will treat both domestic commerce and trade in these by their firms, including supply chain/traceability/food safety related issues. The third company will be from Lanbo, a leading supplier of mushrooms to supermarkets in China

The issues addressed by the conference are in three sets:

1. What are the patterns of retail transformation (spread of supermarkets, modernization of their procurement systems) in Asia?

2. What are the hypotheses and emerging evidence concerning how that retail transformation affects and will affect agrifood trade and inter-country supply chains (level, nature, geographic patterns, and actors)?

3. How does policy (for example, tariffs, standards, and other regulations) influence the trade effects of retail transformation?

4. What are the policy, competitiveness strategy, and research agenda implications of the answers to the above two sets of issues?

More details available here