The Impacts of Continuous Closed Market on the Wholesale Prices of Agricultural Products

• Main Authors: Cheng-Yu Ko, 柯承佑
• Other Authors: Hung-Hao Chang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/ax7aye

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 農業經濟學研究所 === 106 === The price of agricultural products and the degree of price fluctuations not only affect the consumption of people''s wellbeing, but also increase the uncertainty of agricultural production and impact on the farmers'' income. Therefore, ensuring stable and reasonable prices of agricultural products is one of the most important policies for many countries. The fluctuation of agricultural product prices is mainly affected by climatic conditions. The quality of agricultural products, the peak season of the growing season, etc., will also cause fluctuations in the prices of vegetables. To stabilize the price of agricultural products and promote the formation of agricultural product prices to be more open and transparent, the government have jointly invested with farmers'' groups and vegetable traffickers to establish Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corporation. The company is responsible for the operation of Taipei''s first and second fruit and vegetable wholesale markets. However, the Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corporation, which should have taken up the price of agricultural products in Taipei, broke out in the early 2018. Due to the excessively tight continuous closed market schedule, the agricultural product price collapsed, and the quantities suddenly increased when the market opened. The chaos of continuous closed market has caused a lot of controversy. Most of the studies focuses on the impact of climatic factors or natural disasters such as typhoons and cold damage on the price of vegetables. There are few related studies in Taiwan about the impact of continuous closed market on the vegetable prices. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the price fluctuations of six vegetables (cabbage, pekinensis, radish, corn, yam, spinach) before and after the market closures in 2011. In order to explore whether the price of vegetables will fall after continuous market closures, this study mainly uses the synthetic control method to analyze the impact of the 2011 lunar New Year festival and the Ghost Festival on the average wholesale price of vegetables. The empirical results show that, whether it is after a longer or shorter market closure, the price of vegetables at the opening of the market is relatively easy to have a lower price than without a market closure. It is indeed possible for the price of vegetables to be caused by the continuous closed market. The impact, which is further affected by the five consecutive days of the lunar New Year festival, is more significant. Among the six vegetables discussed in this paper, the continuous closed market has the most obvious impact on the wholesale price of cabbage. Also the study finds that in the absence of closed market, the average price will be higher than when the market is closed. Because the growth, harvesting and storage period of leafy vegetables are shorter, the price is significantly affected by the long-term closures. In contrast, the average price of rhizome crops such as radish and yam is less susceptible to the effect of continuous closures, possibly due to its longer growth, harvesting and storage periods. Finally, based on the empirical results, this study suggests that in the future Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corporation should include the effect of continuous market closures on the price of vegetables, and reduce the number of consecutive holidays in the long-term period to reduce the fluctuation of agricultural prices.