The governance of food markets is a crucial element for efficiency and distributional effects. In this paper, we use a conceptual model to show that this governance itself is endogenous in an environment of weak contract enforcement and imperfect markets, and importantly depends on the value in...

Commodity value chains have undergone tremendous changes in the past decades.Private traders, retailers and food processing companies increasingly contract withfarms and rural households to whom they provide inputs and services in return forguaranteed and quality supplies.However, due to a...

In a detailed case study of traditional wholesale markets for vegetables in India (in the state of Uttarakhand), we find several important governance problems at horticulture wholesale markets: marketing regulations are ineffective, widespread confusion of roles exists between brokers and...

Food quality has become an important determinant of success in global food trade and growers for international markets have to continuously adjust to buyers’ requirements. It is however not clear to what extent there is a demand for food quality - and how much buyers are willing to pay for it...

The impact of multinational firms on the domestic agricultural sector in developing countries is controversial, in particular in India. Relying on a unique set of household-level data from the state of Punjab, we study the biggest dairy company in the world (Nestlé) in India and compare its...

Relying on data from a unique survey, we study the wholesale market activities of agricultural brokers in India. Three main findings emerge. First, most transactions on these wholesale markets are small cash-and-carry transactions with physical handling, quality and quantity assessment, and...

Price transmission is theoretically examined and how exogenous consumer price shocks (triggered for instance by income changes, global shocks, or by changes in consumer preferences) are transmitted to producer prices, taking into account the particular nature and institutional characteristics of...

The cotton sector has been amongst the most regulated in Africa, and still is to a large extent in West and Central Africa (WCA), despite repeated reform recommendations by international donors. On the other hand, orthodox reforms in East and Southern Africa (ESA) have not always yielded the...