SPATIAL AND VARIETAL PRICE ANALYSIS OF DRY EDIBLE BEAN MARKETS

Dry bean prices, as received by the grower and the dealer, were analyzed for four different production regions, and for two of the major varieties grown in the US. The dry bean price series were not stationary. Prices for each variety were cointegrated across the production regions and between grower and dealer markets. However causality tests failed to show the dominant regional variety as the price leader. Further, prices of the two varieties were not cointegrated, which indicated that growers would benefit from growing more than one variety at the same time.