Exports of agricultural products and the port environment: the perspective of the transaction costs theory

Abstract: The Brazilian port scenario has undergone several changes over the last decades, from the decentralization of activities to new criteria for exploration and leasing for the private initiative of cargo handling terminals in public ports. These changes had an impact on the export dynamics of agricultural products and on transaction costs. This paper seeks to identify if there are transaction costs in the port environment for the export of agricultural products and the proposal of a transaction cost index (ICT). The handling of two important agricultural products were analyzed: soy and ethanol. The dimension of the analyzed transactions was asset specificity. The results indicated that the highest ICT obtained was for ethanol. However, the assets evaluated for both products had specificities that varied between average and high, which allowed concluding that in the port sector the transaction costs involved are high, promoting the adoption of new strategies and forms of governance to mitigate the risk associated with the transactions, such as long-term contracts and partnerships.