Impact of Buyer Relationships on the Performance of Local Grain Elevators

Spatial Competition in the Iowa Corn Market: Informing the Pricing Behavior of Corporate and Cooperative Grain Merchants

“…First, recent studies of spatial price competition in the agricultural input procurement market have been limited primarily to the dairy industry [13,14]. Our study produces the first evidence of spatial price competition in the grain sector since Davis and Hill [10] and Campbell and Schmiesing [11]. Second, like Boone and Özcan [15], our study illustrates the importance of considering the interaction effect of ownership structure and strategic behavior in comparative case studies of cooperatives and non-cooperatives.…”

“…Even the grain sector, which is an integral part of the global food market, has not received much empirical attention from a spatial perspective at the micro-level (i.e., local or regional). Two notable exceptions are Davis and Hill [10] and Campbell and Schmiesing [11], who explored explanations for variability in cash prices at local grain elevators in the Midwest of the United States. While important, these studies are now outdated considering recent developments in the grain sector, such as increases in vertical coordination and industry concentration [4,12], which may impact the pricing behavior of grain merchants in relation to grain producers.…”