| dc.description.abstract | This research studies producer and retail's
behaviour towards coconut price, and assesses
middlemen's impact and the influence of inflation on
it. Coconut contributes 0.6 % to the total GDP. Though
researches attributed the recent price hike to droughts,
the consumers view middlemen influence it. The
influence was analysed considering the market margin
of middlemen. Secondary data were on nominal market
price (NMP), producer's prices (PP), retail prices (RP) of
coconut, and Colombo consumer price index for 25 years
from 1993-2017. The impact of Middle men on coconut
price was analysed by considering the market margin of
middlemen mainly focussing the Agents and Brokers,
Merchant Wholesalers, Distributors and retailers. The
analysis revealed that the nominal market price of coconut
had increased by 828% and increased by 10% per annum.
The producer's price showed a positive specular trend,
increasing by 851% and by 10 % per annum. The retail
and producer prices varied largely during the study period
74% and 76% respectively; the real retail price and real
producer price over the time behaved with no significant
increase. The Coefficient of Variation (CV) of real retail
and real producer prices were 23% and 25% respectively
revealed the absence of drastic growth or decay. Further,
a decreasing tendency of Marketing Margin (MM) with
time for real prices expressed a negative variation of
76% of CV. The market margin of middlemen was not
influencing the retail price of coconut. The increase in
retail price in the market during the recent past was due
to the increased inflation by 8%. However, the growth
rate of the MM of coconut was less than 1%, and it was
to manage the fluctuations in inflation. Though there is
criticism against middlemen, they are the risk takers and
entrepreneurs in the market ever. Further the market
middlemen are not an unwanted market elements nor
exploiters of consumers and producers as people view. | en_US |
