Price Transmission and its Volatility in Rice Marketing Chain in Iran: A Case Study of Kamfirozian Variety

Volatility and imperfect price transmission in food markets always impress the welfare of producers and consumers, especially in the developing countries. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the price relationship in vertical market levels (i.e. farm gate, wholesale and retail) of rice as a staple food for Iranians, using the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) and the Generalized AutoRegressive Conditional Heteroskedastic (GARCH). The data used was based on monthly observations of prices in Kamfiroz Rice Market from April 1997 to March 2015. Results showed that the direction of Granger causality and partial price transmission were from farm gate to retail market as well as from wholesale to farm gate level and retail market to wholesale, such that, if wholesale prices increase by 1%, farm gate prices will increase about 0.37%. Also, if retail prices increase by 1%, then wholesale prices will increase by about 0.36%. In addition, if farm gate prices increase by 1%, then retail prices will decrease by about 0.08%. Results also implied that retail and wholesale price volatilities have positive spillover effects on the volatility of farm gate prices (i.e. 0.50 and 0.31, respectively). In addition, retail prices are more sensitive to wholesale prices and more volatile (i.e. 0.56) than the others. Finally, in order to increase the transparency of information and increase the efficiency of price transmission in Kamfiroz Rice Market, it was suggested that marketing cooperatives of this product be increased and supported more.