Transaction costs in the trading modes of cashew nuts in northwestern Benin

Because of its role in generating income for farmers and currencies for the country, cashew is a crop of economic and strategic interest in Benin. Its marketing, through two main channels (individual vs. grouped sales) is however subject to many constraints, including transaction costs which are the subject of this study. Based on a random sample of 122 producers chosen in northwestern Benin and using the opportunity cost approach, the transactional efficiency of the two contractual sales methods was analysed. The results show that 93 F CFA/kg of transaction costs are borne by the producers in the individual sales mode against only 43 F CFA/kg in the grouped sales mode (1 $ = 542 F CFA). The major components of transaction costs in both modes are the ex ante ones (98 %) while ex post transaction costs represent only 2 %. Although the results show that group selling has the best comparative advantage in terms of reducing transaction costs, this mode is struggling to develop, and the individual mode is still dominant (62 %). Thus, this result does not corroborate the generally accepted idea that actors systematically choose the mode of coordination that minimizes transaction costs in an exchange process. However, it suggests the need to deepen the analysis of transactional efficiency in the future by including the analysis of producers' perception of the functioning of each marketing mode and the importance of the transaction costs incurred.