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Can agricultural traders be trusted? Evidence from Ethiopia

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  • Assefa, Thomas
  • Minten, Bart J.

Abstract

Traditional food marketing systems in developing countries are presumed to suffer from a number of deficiencies. Policy makers therefore often try to regulate them and modern private market arrangements are increasingly emerging to help deal with some of the deficiencies. However, it is unclear if and to what extent regulation and modernization affects governance of these markets. We look in this paper at the case of coffee in urban markets in Ethiopia. We find no significant cheating with weights but there is illegal trade, with significant non-allowed trade of export quality coffee in local markets, and a consistent pattern of mis-representation of not easily verifiable quality characteristics. We further find that modernizing marketing formats, including modern retail, and branded and packaged products, deliver higher quality (at a high price) but they are not more trustworthy than traditional ones along these three dimensions.

Suggested Citation

  • Assefa, Thomas & Minten, Bart J., 2015. "Can agricultural traders be trusted? Evidence from Ethiopia," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 210964, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:iaae15:210964
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.210964
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Ebata, Ayako & Hüttel, Silke, 2015. "Do development projects link smallholders to markets?," GlobalFood Discussion Papers 204326, Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen, GlobalFood, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development.
    2. Gelaw, F., 2018. "Impacts of Trademarking on Export and Producer Prices in Ethiopian Coffee," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277290, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    3. Ebata, Ayako & Huttel, Silke, 2015. "Do development projects link smallholdrs to markets?," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 211583, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Tröster, Bernhard, 2015. "Global commodity chains, financial markets, and local market structures: Price risks in the coffee sector in Ethiopia," Working Papers 56, Austrian Foundation for Development Research (ÖFSE).

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    Keywords

    Agribusiness; Agricultural Finance; Crop Production/Industries; Marketing;
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