Linkages in modern distribution channels formation: the study of factors affecting mountainous agricultural products consumption in Vietnam
Linkages in modern distribution channels formation: the study of factors affecting mountainous agricultural products consumption in Vietnam

Summary/Abstract: Food distribution system in developing countries, for instance in Vietnam, has rapidly transformed towards modern supply channels with high quality products. We observe that producers of the agricultural products at mountainous areas face significant challenges in accessing to modern distribution channels. In such condition, linkages appear as a key factor for small scale farmers connecting to markets. In this regard, the purpose of our research is to study the factors affecting linkages in the formation of modern distribution channels in view of consumption of mountainous agricultural products in Vietnam and developing countries in general. In our research model, we tested 6 elaborated hypotheses focused on the issue of linkage in modern distribution channel formation and introduced 26 observed variables. We conducted the survey at 8 out of 11 districts of the mountainous areas of Thanh Hoa province of Vietnam in 2018 with 215 small farmers being the respondents. The results indicates that linkages in modern distribution channels formation for mountainous agricultural consumption has strongly affected by a range of significant groups of factors, namely: natural conditions of the mountainous area; characteristics of agricultural products in the mountainous area; support of firms; government policies aimed at the formation of linkages; constraints in agricultural production; barriers to enter modern distribution channels.The results of the undertaken regression analysis imply the following. 1) The requirements of modern distribution channels (brand name, prices, professional collecting, etc.) are big barriers for farmers in mountainous areas who want to access the market, which explains the reason why small farmers are motivated to use linkages in order to enter the modern distribution system. In fact, most agricultural products at mountainous areas are in a raw form, without packaging, labelling, and traceability, while small-scale farmers do not have enough capacity to keep to such standards. 2) Typical local products of mountainous areas tend to be formed by the linkage. This comes from the fact that popular agricultural products that are common for traditional markets or products with low value have little impact on the formation of the linkage while high-value products tend to join the linkage to reach larger markets beyond mountainous areas. From this point of view, linkages in the formation of the modern distribution system are required for typical local products in mountainous areas. 3) The role of firms in building linkages is crucial. Firms play an important role in supplying products from mountainous areas to the market. Whether the linkage becomes a success or not, depends on the level of involvement of firms. 4) It is necessary to have a strong policy (both from the part of local authorities and the government) in order to encourage firms, households and other stakeholders to be involved in the creation of linkages in mountainous areas. Since the market power is largely considered within the agricultural market, the government policy becomes very important in terms of helping small farmers to become stronger players in the market and encouraging firms to participate in the formation of linkages. Obtained results correlate with several studies on linkages in developing countries, which are also linked to comparable cases of mountainous areas. We, therefore, propose recommendations for developing countries related to the issue of linkages in the formation of the modern distribution system. We emphasize that it is required to select products to build linkage models, to implement strong policies to attract enterprises to join linkages in mountainous areas, to build linkage models to add values to mountainous agricultural products connected to the requirements of modern distribution channels and, finally, to improve the production scale of mountainous farmers by conducting a land reform in order to create conditions for the formation of linkages and increase market power of middlemen in agricultural markets in the developing countries.

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