FARMERS, TRADERS, AND PROCESSORS: ESTIMATING THE WELFARE LOSS FROM DOUBLE MARGINALIZATION FOR THE INDONESIAN RUBBER SECTOR Thomas Kopp1 & Richard J. Sexton2
[email protected] 1The University of Göttingen, Germany 2University of California, Davis, USA 2019 Vortrag anlässlich der 59. Jahrestagung der GEWISOLA (Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften des Landbaues e.V.) „Landwirtschaft und ländliche Räume im gesellschaftlichen Wandel“ Braunschweig, 25. bis 27. September 2019 Copyright 2019 by Thomas Kopp and Richard J. Sexton. All rights reserved. Readers may make verbatim copies of this document for non-commercial purposes by any means, provided that this copyright notice appears on all such copies. Farmers, Traders, and Processors: Estimating the Welfare Loss from Double Marginalization for the Indonesian Rubber Sector Abstract Reducing buyer market power over farmers is a key strategy to improve rural livelihoods in emerging economies. This paper focuses on implications for farm income and market efficiency of failure of a supply chain to coordinate vertically to eliminate a second stage of buyer power in the vertical market chain – the so-called “double marginalization” problem. Our specific application is to the Indonesian rubber industry. In the Jambi province production is mainly in the hands of smallholder farmers, who sell via spot transactions to a network of traders who in turn sell in spot exchanges to rubber processors. Processing is highly concentrated, and concentration among traders is also quite high in localized procurement markets. Barriers to buyer coordination are largely absent, and evidence indicates that both traders and processors exercise oligopsony power, a classic problem of double marginalization. We estimate the extent of buyer market power in farmer-trader and trader-processor interactions and then explore the nature of this market failure and quantify the extent of welfare loss and redistribution of income among market participants.