On the Twain Food Supply Chain in China - Impact of Supermarket Development on Agricultural Sector and Agrifood Safety in China

Food safety is attracting more and more attention by sectors of various kinds. However, the contradiction faced by China is the continuous growing safety and quality agrifood market and export demand together with large volumes of distributed and un-organized small-scale rural household production. If we cannot effectively organize agrifood production of distributed rural households, provide technical guidance, and exercise supervision during the production process, it is obvious that it is difficult to supply safety and quality agrifood in large volumes, sustainably and steadily. In the first place, this study has put forward the fact that the rapid development of supermarket in China has created favorable and irreplaceable objective conditions for safety and quality agrifood production in China. The management and supervision costs over supermarket supply chain by the society and government departments are much lower than those in traditional country fairs and wholesale markets. We can adopt the model of "supermarket + leading enterprises (agrifood suppliers) + rural households," to guide thousands of small-scale rural households to access to supermarket supply chains so as to speed up the pace of the popularization of safety and quality agrifood.safety agrifood, agrifood distribution, supermarkets, agrifood supply chain, small-scale farmers, Marketing,

Overcoming successive bottlenecks: The evolution of a potato cluster in China

Although the role of industrial policy in economic development is a frequent topic of debate in both the literature and the political arena, most such discussions focus on industrial policymaking at the national level. Using a case study of a potato cluster in China, we show that industrial policymaking at the local level contributes greatly to economic development. Many of the industrial policies affecting the cluster—including leveling land, developing better varieties, establishing a potato trade association, lobbying for increasing freight car quotas, and attracting processing firms—were implemented at the local level, highlighting the need for discussion of local industrial policymaking as a major determinant of cluster development. As the case study demonstrates, economic development is a continuous process with constantly evolving binding supply-side and demand-side constraints. Often, after a local policy helps remove one binding constraint, a new one emerges that, in turn, may require a new set of local policies. Therefore, the success of a potato cluster depends upon local industrial policies that respond to emerging binding constraints at different stages of the cluster's development.Economic transformation, clusters, comparative advantage, local industrial policy, Poverty,

The Rise of New Farmer Cooperatives in China; Evidence from Hubei Province

Since the late 1990s, the number of farmer cooperatives in China has rapidly grown. The adoption of the national law on farmer professional cooperatives in 2007 has led to significant governmental support for the establishment and management of farmer professional cooperatives. This paper explores the organizational features of the newly established cooperatives as well as the services they provide to their members. Particular attention is given to the role of local entrepreneurs in grouping farmers and in acquiring support from local and regional state agencies. The paper is based on data about a group of 200 agriculture and aquaculture cooperatives in Hubei province, central China.Agribusiness,

Impact of contract farming on income: Linking small farmers, packers, and supermarket in China

"Contract farming is seen by proponents as a way to raise small-farm income by delivering technology and market information to small farmers, incorporating them into remunerative new markets. Critics, however, see it as a strategy for agribusiness firms to pass production risk to farmers, taking advantage of an unequal bargaining relationship. There is also concern that contract farming will worsen rural income inequality by favoring larger farmers. This study examines these issues in Shandong Province, China, using survey data collected from 162 apple and green onion farmers and interviews with four contracting firms in 2005. Using a probit model to estimate participation in a contract-farming scheme, we find little evidence that contracting firms prefer to work with larger farmers, though all farms in the area are quite small. Furthermore, using a Heckman selection-correction model to control for possible selection bias, we find that contract farmers earn significantly more than independent farmers after controlling for household labor availability, education, farm size, and other characteristics. Finally, we find that the way contracting contributes to farm income varies between commodities: contract apple growers benefit from higher yields (presumably due to technical assistance), while contract green onion growers receive higher prices (presumably due to better quality). These results suggest that contract farming can help small farmers raise their incomes and gain access to the growing urban and export markets. Questions remain regarding the number of farmers that are, or could be, brought into similar contract arrangements." from Authors' AbstractContract farming, Horticulture, exports, Small farmers, Supermarkets,

The Evolution of an Industrial Cluster in China

We use two rounds of surveys, in 2000 and 2008, in the Zhili Township children’s garment cluster in Zhejiang Province to examine in depth its evolution. Firm size has grown on average in terms of output and employment, and increasing divergence in firm sizes has been associated with a significant increase in specialization and outsourcing among firms in the cluster. Although initial investments have more than tripled, they remain low enough so that formal bank loans remain an insignificant source of finance. Accompanying lower entry barriers, there have been an increasing number of firms in the cluster, which have driven down profit and bid up wages, particularly since the year 2000. Facing severe competition, more firms have begun to upgrade their product quality. By the year 2007, nearly half of the sampled had established registered trademarks and nearly 20 percent had become ISO certified. Declining profit ratios to initial investment and stagnant TFP imply that the future of this industry is likely to rest on using more advanced technology and higher ratios of capital to labor, which imply increases in firm size and initial investment. Thus traditional sources of finance that do not require honest, efficient, and transparent courts are likely to fade as the need for improved legal and financial institutions become critical factor influencing China’s growth prospects.

From inferior to superior products: An inquiry into the Wenzhou model of industrial development in China

http://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/sonobe_tetsushi/http://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/otsuka_keijiro

Industrial development in the inland region of China: A case study of the motorcycle industry

http://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/sonobe_tetsushi/http://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/otsuka_keijiro