THE MARKET STRUCTURE OF THE BALI CATTLE IN EAST NUSA TENGGARA, INDONESIA

Abstract

Knowing the cattle market structure will provide an explanation of competition in the market. This study was to determine the market structure of the Bali cattle, involving 200 farmers and 14 inter-island traders. The market structure is known to measure market concentration by measuring Concentration Ratio (CR4), Hirschman-Herfindahl Index (HHI) and Rosenbluth index (IR), look at the barriers to entry, market knowledge and product differentiation. The results of the analysis show that the cattle market at the research location from the breeder's side is in a perfectly competitive sales market dealing with oligopsonistic inter-island traders. In this situation the oligopsonists act as price makers and farmers are only price takers. The price takers will accept any price offered because it is in a weak position and the income earned is low. Breeding for producers is a way of life and part with culture, so low income does not prevent them from continuing to work as farmers. To overcome this problem farmers needed to join cooperatives to be able to work together to overcome difficulties. The government needs to develop the auction market so as to increase the bargaining power of farmers in selling cattle.

Keywords

• cattle
• market structure
• perfect competition