A Case Study on Quasi-Economic Integration in the Cheju Broiler Industry.

제주브로일러 산업의 유사경제 통합에 관한 사례연구

The purpose of this presentation is to review the situation of the Cheju broiler industry peculiarized with the integrated production and marketing system to some degree, which is not prevailed in the whole broiler industry in Korea, so as to study the case of the Cheju industry from the viewpoint of an economic integration. The economic integration in the broiler industry is grouped into three patterns： non-integration, quasi-integration and complete integration, which generally exist under the different type of market competition. The quasi-integration tends to be formed at all phases where the complete integration is not fully implemented, but the non-integration has begun to change its nature into partially integrated structure. The Cheju broiler industry is characterized by the geographical location of isolated market so that factor supplies and broiler products are marketed in the different conditions from those of mainland Korea, somewhat in an oligopolistic pattern. It was since early 1980's that the industry successfully had three dressing plants merged into one by virtue of entire growers ownership, which opened an era of an integrated industry centered on the function of dressing birds. The case of Cheju broiler industry today is to be referred to as a typical quasi-integration which is coordinated the function between growing and dressing birds directly and extended the functional cooperation to distribution of products indirectly, while factor supplies are traded independently. As a result of a quasi-integration, the growers are able to receive a fixed price set by the dressing plant of growers that has the power to adjust the supply of and demand for broilers produced and consumed in the Island. There are some problems, however, in the integration of the Cheju broiler industry, stemming mainly from the process of the structure change, ： 1) the difficulty of controlling the production of broilers, 2) continuing pressure on the integration by non-integrated sectors, 3) the challenge on the stabilized broiler market from the mainland, 4) limited effectiveness of consumer education activities, and 5) lack of leadership for the industry development through integration. It is projected that the partially integrated Cheju broiler industry will be continually developed toward the direction of a complete integration in due course, as the currently independent supply sectors are to be backward integrated. The case of the Cheju broiler integration, therefore, could be used as a reference for making the whole broiler industry in Korea develop toward the integrated structure in the future.