Proceedings of the 2016 International Conference ECONOMIC SCIENCE FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT No 43. media of transmission. uniqueness

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1 Jelgava, LLU ESAF, April 2016, pp CHOSEN INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR AGRICULTURE IN POLAND AND FRANCE Maria Parlinska 1, Dr.hab., professor SGGW; Salima Hassani Taibi 2, professor 1 Faculty of Economic Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences-SGGW 2 Department of Mathematics and Informatics, Institut Politechnique Lasalle- Esitpa Abstract. The paper presents general overview of the importance of information and information systems in agricultural sector. The aim of the paper is characteristics of the role of information in agriculture and its impact on the agricultural sector from European, particularly Polish and French perspectives. The authors underline that it is a crucial issue for the situation in the European Union agriculture. In the research paper the descriptive and comparative methods were used. Key words: information systems, agricultural sector, big data. JEL code: G14, Q13 Introduction "Information, Information Systems and Economics of Information" are the notions that mean different things to different groups of scientists. Information plays a crucial role in all markets. People cannot buy and sell anything without information: who is willing to sell or to buy, on what terms, what is the quality of the goods or services offered, how these things are likely to change in the future. The simplest kind of supply and demand theory may be applicable, in case when information on these things is plentiful, public or easy to get, and reliable. On the one hand, in cases when information on these things is limited, unreliable, and more easily available to some people than to others, the simplest kind of market theory does not apply, and markets may not be as effective. On the other hand, some organizations and enterprises exist mainly for the purpose of supplying information goods and services. The following article is mainly concerned with the economics of information mainly from the point of view of economic analysis of information suppliers. When the information is in trade, it makes sense to suppose that information can be limited, more easily available to some people than to others and in some cases unreliable. That is why the organizations, which have information, they also have possibility to sell this information. This article is looking at the economics of information suppliers from the point of view of the principles of economics, leaving the integration of the two kinds of economics of information for a more advanced study. A study of information industries is concerned with the typical questions of microeconomics like: 1) Have information products any special characteristics that set them apart, economically, from other kinds of products and services? 2) What sort of markets are markets for information goods? Are they "competitive," in the sense of economic theory, or are there elements of monopoly? 3) Do information markets correspond to an efficient output, or would it be more efficient if the output were increased (or decreased) by comparison with the market equilibrium? 4) How to manage the information markets? Economic characteristics of information products This definition and these examples of information products point toward some of the distinctive economic and organizational characteristics of information products: media of transmission Information products cannot be bought or sold alone. While it is the arrangement of symbols that gives utility, the symbols have to be recorded or expressed in some material form. Information products cannot be bought, sold, given away or even preserved except in conjunction with some medium. uniqueness 1 corresponding author. maria_parlinska@sggw.pl 86

2 On the ideal competitive markets discussed in economic textbooks, the goods traded are assumed to be "homogenous". Since it is the specific arrangement of symbols in an information product that gives utility, information products cannot be "homogenous." For example, even if computer spreadsheets differ only a little in "look and feel," computer spreadsheets are not a "homogenous product". This means that there always is an element of monopoly on markets for information products. high fixed costs Since the information product is not sold alone but in conjunction with some medium, the costs of the information product itself are largely independent of the number of copies sold in the various appropriate media. That is, from the viewpoint of the seller, the costs of the information product itself are fixed costs, and the only variable costs are those of the media (Cordella, 2006). Information producers have this cost structure in common with public utilities and "natural monopolies" of all kinds, and as the phrase indicates, high fixed costs have some tendency to give rise to monopoly (though the term "natural monopoly" is probably usually an exaggeration). Of course, this reinforces the tendency toward monopoly created by uniqueness. incentive problem Since it is the arrangement of the symbols that gives utility, it may be very easy and cheap to duplicate the information product. For example, once an inventor has worked out plans for a valuable invention, others can use the plans to produce the machine without sharing the cost of developing the invention. In general, a valuable arrangement of symbols can be imitated. That is, imitators can arrange symbols in the same way in the same or another suitable medium. Imitation is less costly than original work, and thus the imitators can undersell the originator. In effect, the imitators need not bear Jelgava, LLU ESAF, April 2016, pp any of the fixed cost of the original information product but only the variable cost of the media. Other examples are those who "pirate" software and recordings by making unauthorized copies. This may make it very difficult for originators of information products to recover the cost of their work, let alone profit by it. If this is so, then there will be little incentive to originate information products, and this would be inefficient. This is the "incentive problem." intellectual property As a means of remedying the incentive problem, the law may give the originator of an information product some exclusive right to control use, or sell the information product, regardless of the media in which it is expressed. Rights of this kind are called rights of "intellectual property." Patents for new inventions and copyright on new written or artistic work are examples of intellectual property. In general, the characteristics of information products differ in important ways from those of goods traded on "perfect" competitive markets. Since modern economics associates "perfect" markets with efficient allocation of resources, the question arises whether "enough" resources will be allocated to the production of information products in the absence of government intervention. The incentive problem suggests that "too little" resources may be allocated to the production of information products, in the absence of some special provision. But "intellectual property" is a special provision designed to respond to the incentive problem. Let us take a more detailed look at a specific, wellestablished form of intellectual property: information systems in agriculture. Information on the Polish agricultural market; research results and discussion Many institutions on the Polish market are involved in delivering the information for agriculture. The most important public institution is the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural 1 corresponding author. maria_parlinska@sggw.pl 87

3 Development, which publishes the Integrated Agricultural Market Information System. Data on the level of prices of agro-food products are collected by employees of: the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, agricultural counselling centres, agricultural chambers, wholesale markets and exchanges. The test results are published in newsletters of the system prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Currently, there is industry newsletter for: poultry, eggs, market for organic eggs, milk market, oilseeds market, market for fresh fruit and vegetables, pork and beef market, grain market, sheep meat market, flower market, sugar market, feed and hops market, tobacco market. The newsletters contain information about the level of prices which characterize the various categories of industry. The Agricultural Market Agency AMA (in Polish language: Agencja Rynku Rolnego - ARR) is a state organizational unit which was established in June The main task of the agency is to deal with some issues of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The seat of the Agency is based in Warsaw. The Agency has comprised an office called "Central" and 16 branch offices operating in the provinces. President of the Agency is appointed by the Prime Minister at the request of the minister responsible for agricultural markets in consultation with the minister responsible for public finances. Website of the Agricultural Market Agency contains a lot of useful information, especially for those interested in agriculture. On the basis of the links in the menu on the right, one can learn the current exchange rate in Euro, co-funding for certain crops or purchase of machinery and campaigns such as Fruits at School and "Glass of Milk". In the section About Us, one can search law regulations under which the Agency was created as well as the law regulations defining the scope of the Agency's activities. A lot of useful information for farmers can be found in the menu Frequently Asked Questions, where Jelgava, LLU ESAF, April 2016, pp the telephones numbers and addresses are given. Interested parties can send their concerns relating to the Common Agricultural Policy, and also a large number of responses to questions about various fields of agriculture. In the same part of the portal, one can find out where the headquarters of the Agency are situated or links to websites of institutions that deal with agricultural matters, and information to institutions in the various countries of the European Union engaged in agriculture. One can also find information about certificates issued by the Agency, means to improve the quality of agricultural products and even research on the quality of services provided by the Agency. The Agricultural Market Agency provides every year a large number of newsletters which contain statistical date. It provides also information about the various subsidies. Unfortunately, most of the information contained in the bulletins is typically written in the legal language, to farmers they may be incomprehensible. Similarly, the data represented in tables or graphs may be difficult to understand. However, thanks to those graphical presentations it is an insight into the activities of regional branches. One can learn, for example, how many requests for subsidies have been made, which seed have been certified in area for commercial use throughout the country, information about buying or selling agricultural products, etc. These data are extremely important, especially when one is interested in statistics. The Agricultural Market Agency also provides its own e-books that can help all interested in developing their agricultural activity or conduct trade on the European scale. In those books such statistics are more understandable to farmers and traders than those in newsletters. In the Agency s websites one can review the laws referring to almost all areas of agriculture. What is important they do not relate only to buying, selling and manufacturing but also to the modernization of the products processing, what has a positive effect on the development of 1 corresponding author. maria_parlinska@sggw.pl 88

4 enterprises. There are brochures saying what conditions must be met in order to obtain payment for the product. Unfortunately, one can also observe the complexity of the legislation and proposals which the producer must complete in order to get funding. A separate section on the Agency website is foreign trade, where the CN (The Combined Nomenclature) codes of the product can be found, what the legal conditions trader should comply with in order to be able to start trade and even what to do in case the permission to export/import goods has been revoked. Each market is discussed separately, there is a distinction made between acts, brochures, export refunds, and some conclusions. It is also possible to view information in English for foreigners. Undoubtedly, the Agency website is one containing a huge amount of information. Assessing this page aesthetically and functionally, it should be noted, that it is possible at the first contact with the website, due to the enormity of the message, one can lose orientation. The Warsaw Agricultural and Foodstuffs Wholesale Market in Bronisze was established thanks to the Wholesale Markets and Commodity Exchanges Development Programme, which was prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Economy in Five years later, the government of the Republic of Poland has adopted the programme which has started operate as the Government Programme for Wholesale Markets and Commodity Exchanges development. Wholesale would cause a sales enlargement of agricultural products and foods and lowering of the number of the distributors what influences the rise of producer income (Parlinska, 2008). The location of the largest wholesale market in Poland was chosen to provide convenient conditions for supplying the capital city and to offer the best possible transport facilities for sellers and buyers from the South, North, East and West of Poland. Comprehensive services Jelgava, LLU ESAF, April 2016, pp related to all the issues connected with trading in fruit, vegetables, flowers and foodstuffs are provided to users of the Wholesale Market in Bronisze. It should be kept in mind that also other institutions collect data and deliver information like, for example, GUS - Polish Statistical Office as well as many other state and private institutions. Information on the French agricultural market; research results and discussion Agriculture information Agreste ( is available in spreadsheet file with tables, graphs, charts accessible from website of the French Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry. The Service of Statistics and Forecasting (SSP) offers publications formats and different information as: reference documents, commented and illustrated tables, graphs and maps, collections of business and economic conditions, brief analysis by sector, overview and annual review on the economy. Also it delivers statistical studies in the Agreste Primeur collection of problems, internal or external evaluations in journals and socio-economic studies, works with the working groups animated by the Centre for Studies and Strategic Foresight. The FranceAgriMer is a national institution of agricultural products, linked to the Ministry of Agriculture, Agri-Food and Forestry. It promotes mainly the organization of producers, the organization of relations between the various occupations of each sector, marketing for the national and international trade, ensures the development and implementation of measures for the improvement of consumer information. The Wholesale Market in France (MIN - Marché d Intérêt Général) was created in The Fédération Française des Marchés d Intérêt National (FFMIN), dating from the 1960s, symbolized the network of public wholesale markets. However, there have been 1 corresponding author. maria_parlinska@sggw.pl 89

5 many changes and a diversification occurred in the last years. The new name the Federation of Wholesale Markets of France (Fédération des Marchés de Gros de France ) refers to the place of the nineteen wholesale markets in food sectors and in supplying towns. The Federation of Wholesale Markets of France explains and demonstrates economic and social role of wholesale markets, emphasises their importance in regional development, maintains an independent local retail trade, and underlines their local, regional and national economic weight. To sum up, it is about uniting the nineteen Wholesale Markets under one mark in order to communicate a unifying image to the various bodies and parties concerned. All the Wholesale Markets in France are public services and belong to the Federation of Wholesale Markets of France (FMGF). In January 2015, the market of Brussels (MABRU) also joined the FMGF. The Federation of Wholesale Markets of France is a national network of 19 platforms spread throughout the country, organizes the supply of fresh produce to independent shops and they are active partners of the catering trade and mass distribution. Daily the French Wholesale Markets supply goods for 45 million consumers. Those 19 Wholesale Markets represent 560 hectares, area of 1.8 million m², operators, EUR 12 billion turnover, permanent jobs, producers trading, buyers, vehicles/day. The Wholesale Markets of France are important centres of business and development; they are dedicated to the sale of fresh agricultural and horticultural products and play a major role in modern distribution channels because they group all the actors in one place. The most famous wholesale market is the Rungis International Market, supplying the capital Paris and its region. Users of the market buy and sell fruits and vegetables, meat, fish and seafood, dairy and delicatessen, flowers and plants. Jelgava, LLU ESAF, April 2016, pp Complete information about all products is provided on the Rungis website. Rungis International Market is the largest market for fresh produce in the world, a central player in French and international food industry sectors. It provides real value added at every stage, from producer to consumer. The wholesale markets are sites for competition and transparency for the benefit of local retailers and independent producers. They are also food industry centres, logistic parks and multimodal hubs with a regional, national and international calling to supply food to cities. It should be kept in mind, that the wholesale markets are the actors of urban logistics and they play a very important role in organizing goods transport and the food supply of cities. The purpose of all Wholesale Markets of France is to meet the needs of all the commercial channels for fresh food products and to guarantee their variety, to participate in maintaining traditional sectors, to bring production and distribution together, to actively contribute to regional development and the organization of urban areas and to preserve the environment and sustainable development. The fact of grouping different types of operators in one place encourages the greatest possible diversity in terms of the choice of products and services. It helps maintain strong competition and keep prices down, while optimizing synergies through common infrastructures and services. Positioned between upstream and downstream sectors, the wholesale markets are the essential reference link between production and final distribution, whether in trade or catering. The Wholesale markets play a significant role in the necessary plurality of distribution channels because this is where hypermarkets rub shoulders with independent shopkeepers specialised in certain area or even street market stallholders. At the Rungis Wholesale Market of Paris, sustainable development also means ultra- 1 corresponding author. maria_parlinska@sggw.pl 90

6 modern railway terminal with a capacity to handle tons of fruit and vegetables. For example, there are nearly 170 producers with a permanent base at Rungis Market; this allows them to sell their productions to many different customers, including for export. Some of them work with the Market s international customers and this cooperation can represent up to 40% of their turnover. The SNM, the Market s News Service ( is a public service with an office at Rungis and it has the task of collecting and publishing data on agricultural transactions, with the goal of ensuring maximum transparency. Every day, thanks to its network of investigators and experts, the SNM collates the rates applying at each stage in the chain, wherever may take place transactions that ultimately determine prices. This diversity of formats is the strength of French distribution, it is different from European neighbours, which have a more limited and standardized offer and range. The wholesale Jelgava, LLU ESAF, April 2016, pp markets also help preserve green belts by promoting the consumption of local produce and short channels. In fact, local producers of fruit, vegetables, flowers and plants in particular benefit from a privileged access to the wholesale markets trading floors, where they have a base to sell their produce to shopkeepers and restaurants directly. Conclusions In this paper, the authors have investigated two different agricultural wholesale markets, Polish and French. One can see the heterogeneity between the systems of information but furthermore the complexity of finding the simple information for a consumer. The management of information systems is going to be more difficult in future because of the unstructured Big Data and the multiplicity of information network. Then the perspective is to build a mathematical nonparametric model (Hardle and Kirman, 2011) for description of the behaviour on the Agricultural Wholesale Market in France and Poland. Bibliography 1. Cordella, A. (2006). Transaction Costs and Information Systems: Does It Add Up?. Journal of Information Technology, 21 (3). pp Giulioni, G., Bucciarelli, E. (2011). Agents Ability to Manage Information in Centralized Markets : Comparing Two Wholesale Fish Market. Journal of Economic Behaviour & Organization, Vol. 80, n 1, 2011, pp Härdle, W., Kirman, A. (1998). Nonclassical Demand a Model-free Examination of Price-Quantity Relations in the Marseille Fish Market. Journal of Econometrics, Vol 67, pp Ministere de L'Agriculture, de L'Agroalimentaire et de la Foret. La statistique, l'evaluation et la prospective Agricole. Retrieved: Access: Parlinska, M. (2008). Rola Informacji w Gospodarce Rynkowej na Podstawie Wybranych Rynków Rolnych (The Role of Information in the Market Economy on the Base of Chosen Agricultural Wholesale Markets). Wydawnictwo SGGW, Warszawa. p Rungis International Market. Actualites Produits. Retrieved: Access: corresponding author. maria_parlinska@sggw.pl 91