World Trade Market Structure for Corn

Corn, after Wheat and rice, is the third most strategic agricultural products in the world. This product also provides poultry feed, grain, edible oil beneficial for starch, glucose, and even the production of biofuels. Corn is by far the largest component of world coarse-grain trade, accounting for about three-quarters of total volume in recent years. Most of the corn that is traded is used for feed; smaller amounts are traded for industrial and food uses. This paper aims to determine market structure of corn which can play important roles in the adoption of appropriate policies. This study uses different indexes: concentration ratio, Herfindahl, Entropy and logarithmic standard deviation to determine market structure of exports and imports of this product during 2000-2011. The results have shown that the structure of the world market for imports and exports of corn was opened oligopoly and monopoly with a dominant firm. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ijls.v8i5.11856