Long-term sustainability of third-party facilitated market linkages: Evidence from the USDA marketing assistance program in the Armenian dairy industry

Abstract

Public–private partnerships are increasingly seen as an important tool to build agri-food supply chains and develop markets for agri-food products in emerging economies. However, many of these initiatives fail when the public component of the program ends. One exception is the USDA Market Assistance Program (MAP) that facilitated the redevelopment of the Armenian dairy sector after privatization. This paper presents a case study of this initiative and hypothesize that the USDA MAP facilitated farmer investment in private enforcement capital. This investment resulted in sustainable market relationships between farmers and dairy processors even after the USDA MAP expired. We find empirical evidence to support this hypothesis using a panel dataset collected from 172 Armenian dairy farmers in 2004 and 2009.