Paper info

Power-dependence in agricultural supply chains: fact or fallacy?

Peter J. Batt

The paper was published at the 20th IMP-conference in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2004.

In the transitional economies, it is often assumed that the many small farmers arevulnerable to exploitation by market intermediaries. However, in the North Vietnamesepotato industry, there is little evidence to support this proposition. In the small villages,many traders and collector agents operate. Business relationships are governed more bysocial norms than the use of coercive market power. Even in the metropolitan centres,where at the wholesale level the market is most concentrated, wholesalers are moredependent on the traders that supply them and the down-stream retailers to whom theysell potatoes. In this highly competitive environment, the use of coercive market poweris ineffective as a means of coordinating the market.