Concentração de mercado e poder de monopsônio na indústria brasileira de esmagamento de soja

This study aims to analyze the impacts of changes in the structure of the Brazilian soybean crushing industry on the performance of the soybeans complex. It was verified that the trend of concentration in the soybean crushing industry, which had already been verified by previous paper carried out in the decade of 1990, intensified in the beginning of the decade of 2000. The results regarding market power gave support to the hypothesis of monopsony power usage in the purchases of soybeans from the farmers. The results suggest that the crushing firms have had the ability to use market power against soybean farmers. However, the fact that the use of market power has been restricted in the markets where there is excess capacity suggests that the use of market power is less intense where crushing firms have less bargain power in relation to farmers. In this sense, strategies of cooperation in agricultural marketing, by means of either cooperatives or other forms of partnerships among farmers, could be an effective way of countervailing the increasing bargain power of the crushing industry.