The unmet financial needs of intermediary firms within agri-food value chains in Uganda and Bangladesh

Annet Adong, Kate Ambler, Jeffrey Bloem, Sylvan Herskowitz, AHM Saiful Islam, Julia Wagner and Alan de Brauw

No 2266, IFPRI discussion papers from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Abstract: Intermediary firms within agri-food value chains operating between the farmgate and retailers typically account for at least as much, if not more, value added as the primary agricultural production sector of the economy, but little is known about how these small and largely informal firms conduct their business. Drawing on a set of innovative surveys implemented amid the arabica coffee and soybean value chains in Uganda and the rice and potato value chains in Bangladesh, we describe the financial activities of the firms that transform agricultural produce into food. We document four sets of results. First, across all intermediary actors in our data the overwhelming majority of transactions are cash-based. Second, although many intermediary actors are un-banked, access to financial accounts varies considerably by value chain segment, commodity, and country. Third, while most intermediary actors report using mobile money for personal purposes, especially in Uganda, very few use mobile money to facilitate business transactions. Fourth, although intermediary actors frequently report exposure to risk, very few effectively manage this risk. We conclude by discussing how intermediary agri-food value chain actors represent an underappreciated population for the promotion of new technologies both to improve the stability of the agricultural sector and to improve outcomes among smallholder farmers.

Keywords: agrifood systems; finance; mobile phones; technology; value chains; Africa; Eastern Africa; Asia; Southern Asia; Bangladesh; Uganda (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-ban and nep-ipr
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cgspace.cgiar.org/bitstreams/8ee01f71-4ad6 ... 0f6e78488a9/download (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fpr:ifprid:2266

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IFPRI discussion papers from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().