Brief

IGC Policy Brief Evaluation. RA-2012-06-012 'Potato Traders in West Bengal: A Survey of Contractual Relations and Market Structure”

Abstract

This study consists of a pilot survey of a random sub-set of phorias (middlemen) and larger traders who operate in 72 villages of West Medinipur and Hugli districts and their corresponding potato markets. The goal is to understand the nature of contractual relations between farmers and phorias on the one hand, and between phorias and wholesale traders that they sell to on the other hand. The surveys will enable us to obtain systematic information on market structure, trader costs and profits, entry barriers, contractual relations across successive layers of the supply chain, and the nature of competition at each layer