Price transmission in the Hungarian vegetable sector

In this paper we analyse price transmission for the carrot, parsley, tomato, green pepper and potato markets. Although there is a dual farm structure dominated by small individual farms, our results imply that price information flows from the producer to the retail level for potatoes, parsley and carrots. Our results also suggest that farmers do not merely accept prices, but can actually influence market prices. Tomato and green pepper prices have large transmission elasticities, and causality runs from the retail to producer level. It therefore follows that tomato and green pepper producers tend to accept prices and that the sector’s prices are determined by upper market levels (processors, wholesalers, retailers). These results are reinforced by the fact that vegetable producers sell a large share of their production through procurement and processing, and therefore are more dependent on the upstream industries, and thus cannot influence prices. For all vegetables in this study the short-run price transmission is symmetric while on the tomato market the long-run price transmission is asymmetric. Results indicate that the tomato market is not competitive and efficient; therefore processors, wholesalers, and retailers are capable of exercising market power, and can instantly transmit producer price increases while just slowly and partially transmitting producer price decreases.