Shipment Action and the Choice of Distributor of Potato Farmers in Okinoerabu Island

Abstract

Okinoerabu Island is one of the major potato producing regions of Kagoshima prefecture. There is keen competition between shipper's union and the 13 jobbers in the producing area to collect cargo on the basis not only of price but also non-price factors. Under the situation, the shipper's union cannot supply sufficient volume to wholesale market. Therefore, it is necessary to clarify the actual situation of the shipment of farmhouses, along with the consciousness and intention for the development of the potato producing region. We clarified that the farmhouses shipping to both shipper's union and jobbers in producing area are a minority group, but they are farm households cultivating a potato mainly and on the large scale. It greatly influences quantity of collection of cargo of the receiver that the farmhouse regards the occasional price as important, and to choose the receiver. And it is thought the instability of the quantity of collection of cargo of shipper's union and the jobbers in producing area are puffed up by them. It is the big factor that they cannot ship to the wholesale market as a production center.