Strategies and effects of milk producers' organisations in the Czech Republic

Abstract

Abstract:In the Czech Republic, milk producers' organisations arose spontaneously from farmers' initiatives in the late 1990s as a response to the need to secure fair market conditions for dairy farmers. At present, there are 39 milk producers' organisations operating locally, nationwide or even on the central European markets. Th e paper aims at a better understanding what market conditions and transaction attributes have favoured the emergence and the success of the Czech milk marketing cooperatives as well as if their current objectives and strategies are suffi cient for securing their future success. Th e methodological approach rests largely in the theory of industrial organisation combined with the new institutional economics. Establishing marketing cooperatives, dairy farmers balanced market power with processing industry. It is showed on six case studies that the Czech milk marketing cooperatives follow traditional objectives (securing sales, fair price and payment discipline); however, their priorities and strategies diff er according to their market environment. If the concentration of the dairy industry continues, there will be a need for reconsidering the objectives of milk marketing cooperatives toward a more vertical coordination in the dairy chain.

Horizontal arrangements: strategy for reducing the asymmetry information for dairy farmers in Paraná, Brazil

“…Findings in this research lend support to some statements on literature, such as those by FERNANDEZ-STARK et al (2012), CARVALHO & BARCELLOS (2013), CARVALHO & RIOS (2007) and RATINGER & BOŠKOVÁ (2013).…”

“…Dairy farmers who participate in HA have greater access to general information related to dairy activity, compared to those who do not participate in HA. According to RATINGER & BOŠKOVÁ (2013) and FERNANDEZ-STARK et al (2012), information regarding the market price evolution influences managerial decisions taken by farmers. According to DÜRR (2006), the vision and general information about issues that impact the productive activity allow the generation of greater value access to the product being marketed.…”

“…According to RATINGER & BOŠKOVÁ (2013), the lack of information regarding transactions is due to the bargaining and concentration power of the food industry against farmers. For these authors, this is a major incentive for formatting HA in rural production, which among others, may bring economic benefits and greater access to market information and to transactions, which was supported in this research.…”

A conjectural variation approach to vertical integration in agricultural cooperatives

“…Evidence shows that those cooperatives with actualization mechanisms of social capital, high dedication to agricultural activity, and high rate of capacity utilization are more likely to integrate within the cooperative another stage of the production cycle and, furthermore, cooperatives with a higher level of the downstream vertical integration are most efficient. Ratinger and Bošková (2013) find that the dairy firms' organizations in the Czech Republic intermediate 70% of milk sales to dairy industry and thus they represent a significant bargain power. Hanisch et al (2013) show that dairy cooperatives have a pro-competitive effect and that exemptions for cooperatives from the anti-trust regulation may be justified based on a study of the member states of the EU-27 over the period of 2000-2010. Under the assumption that the agricultural cooperative is a form of downstream vertical integration by firms, this paper solves the profit-maximizing problem for individual members in the multi-plant firm model with conjectural variations.…”

Assessment of milk production competitiveness of the Slovak Republic within the EU-27 countries

“…Their common traditional objectives (guaranteed deliveries, fair price and payment discipline) reflect the unconsolidated situation of the dairy industry (Ratinger and Bošková 2013).…”