market margin and efficiency analysis of rice in mazandaran province

it is very important to analyze the rice market structure in mazandaran province, as this province is competent to produce rice. mazandaran rice market was analyzed by completing 55 questionnaires in producer, wholesaler and retailers level, randomly in 2009. results show that marketing margins of two varieties namely- local (tarom) and multi-product- were 5850 and 3700 rials, respectively; also, the rice wholesale marketing margin is more than its retail marketing margin and producer proportion for local and multi-product have been estimated 58.214 and 52.564 percent, respectively. the wholesaler share is more than retailer share in rice market for both types. as whole, by existence of wholesalers, inefficiency of the market will increase; the producer-wholesaler-consumer channel has been the most inefficient marketing rout in case of price, technical and total inefficiency but the producer-consumer rout has been the most efficient one. estimating the cost coefficient imply that 11.143 and 20 percent of total cost relate to marketing cost in local and multi-product markets, respectively. there is a lot of difference between sum of marketing costs and farm cost in two types markets. so these markets are not clear and this cause to decrease their efficiency. according to estimated total marketing margin function, in two types markets, retail price and marketing cost have significant effects on total marketing margin and retail price has higher and more significant effect on total marketing margin. therefore, if retail price increase by 1 percent, total marketing margin will increase 1.625 and 1.436 percent in local and multi-product markets, respectively.