Synopsis: Can agricultural traders be trusted? Evidence from urban coffee markets in Ethiopia

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dc.creatorAssefa, Thomas
dc.creatorMinten, Bart
dc.date2015-02-12
dc.date2024-08-01T02:51:12Z
dc.date2024-08-01T02:51:12Z
dc.date.accessioned2026-06-27T15:29:34Z
dc.descriptionTraditional food marketing systems in developing countries are often not trusted. In consequence, policy makers frequently try to regulate them and modern market arrangements increasingly are emerging that seek to address some of their presumed deficiencies. However, it is unclear how trustworthy these markets actually are, and if and to what extent regulation and modernization affects market governance. In this paper we look at the case of coffee in urban settings in Ethiopia to test trustworthiness along three dimensions of trade transactions – weight, quality, and the presence of illegal trade. We find that traders are relatively trustworthy on observable quality characteristics and weights. However, there is significant illegal trade (prohibited trade of export quality coffee) and a consistent pattern of over-representation of not easily observable quality characteristics. We find that modern marketing outlets or formats, including branded and packaged products, deliver higher quality at a higher price, but are no more trustworthy than traditional marketing arrangements in terms of these dimensions of trade transactions.
dc.formatapplication/pdf
dc.identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/150263
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/123456789/106042
dc.languageen
dc.publisherInternational Food Policy Research Institute
dc.publisherEthiopian Development Research Institute
dc.relationhttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/151149
dc.relationhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2016.08.018
dc.rightsOpen Access
dc.sourceAssefa, Thomas Woldu; Minten, Bart. 2015. Synopsis: Can agricultural traders be trusted? Evidence from urban coffee markets in Ethiopia. ESSP II Research Note 36. Washington, DC and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: International Food Policy Research Institute and Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/150263
dc.subjectvalue chains
dc.subjectretail marketing
dc.subjectexports
dc.subjecthigh-value agricultural products
dc.subjectcommodities
dc.subjecturban areas
dc.subjectsustainability
dc.subjectquality
dc.subjecttrade
dc.subjectcoffee
dc.titleSynopsis: Can agricultural traders be trusted? Evidence from urban coffee markets in Ethiopia
dc.typeBrief

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Instituto Internacional de Investigación sobre Políticas Alimentarias (IFPRI)