A Contractual perspective on the Norwegian Agri-food sector

Abstract

The Norwegian agri-food sector is under transformation, and as part of this the contractual relations between the various parts of the sector are rapidly changing. The purpose of this paper is to answer two questions: • How can these changes be explained? • What changes can be expected in the future? The analysis is based on insight from new institutional economics. The starting point is that the relations between agents depend on institutions and governance structure. Changes in one or both will influence the contractual relations. The paper focuses on relations between primary producers and first hand buyers of agricultural products. However, since changes at this part of the value chain is influenced by what happens down-stream, we take developments in down-stream parts of the chains into account as far as we find it relevant. […]