Vilmar Rodrigues Moreira

O cooperativismo e a gestão dos riscos de mercado: análise da fronteira de eficiência do agronegócio paranaense

This article discusses agribusiness market risk management, the influence of agribusiness cooperatives on this practice and assesses the portfolio of agricultural production commodities in the Brazilian state of Parana regarding the risk-return relation. Through outlining an efficiency frontier, it was possible to determine the necessary changes to be carried out in the state production portfolio aiming at economical efficiency (defined, in the context of this work, as the trade-off between risk and return). The article also assesses the participation of agribusiness cooperatives in the production of items included in the model and the possible influences this type of organization could exert on changes addressed to economical efficiency. Through questionnaires and interviews with cooperative managers, it was possible to assess the cooperative willingness to motivate changes on their production and their member portfolios. It was also possible to verify that the main reasons influencing decisions on production preference changes are related to economical and rational aspects, such as cooperative strategic focus and member resistance. Reasons related to political or social aspects are inherent to the cooperative organizational characteristics, however, in the Paranas context these reasons do not exert significant influence on diversification decisions considered as market risk management tools.

Assessment of the Economic Structure of Brazilian Agribusiness.

This paper presents an economic assessment of Brazilian agribusiness and its relationship with other economic sectors. It was found that, in 2011, agribusiness had a share of 18.45% (basic prices) and 19.77% (market prices) of Brazilian GDP. The tax burden of agribusiness (20.68%) was higher than that of other sectors (13.59%), despite agribusiness being a major contributor to the generation of foreign exchange, employment, and essential products, such as food. Brazilian agribusiness is a major employer, responsible for 29.39% of national employment. However, its average income is lower than in the other sectors of the Brazilian economy. Finally, agribusiness was found to be the biggest generator of foreign exchange, with a positive balance of trade. It was possible to conclude that agribusiness forms a strong link between agriculture and livestock, industry, and services in other economic sectors. For this reason, it can be said that the development of agribusiness is highly relevant to the process of Brazilian economic development and is therefore important to the progress of economic policies.

Avaliação de Retornos e Riscos na Comercialização de Milho: estudo de caso usando Value-at-Risk

In each of the productive chain links, finding viable strategies for risk mitigation is not a trivial task. Usually, generic strategies are adopted to reduce risks, such as diversification of crops and/or strategies aiming at transferring or diluting risk through futures contracts and insurance. This article aims to evaluate three strategies for managing risks concerning the corn trading: simultaneous buying and selling, storage and short selling. Towards the methodological procedures, this study is descriptive regarding its goal and it is a case study regarding the approach of the problem. Literature and documents were used as procedures for data collection, with coverage for the period of crops from 2003 to 2010. The Value at Risk (VaR) and Sharpe Ratio Modified, which is a variation of the Sharpe Ratio, were used to evaluate commercialization strategies. The results show that the highest returns for the storage would be obtained during winter seasons and for shorter periods. For the short selling, the return averages are similar for all time horizons. The simultaneous buying and selling showed the best risk/return ratio.

Do Cooperatives Manage Earnings to Avoid Losses and Earnings Decreases

This paper investigates the use of earnings management by cooperatives to avoid reporting losses or earnings decreases. Based on a unique dataset comprising quarterly financial statements reported by 66 Brazilian agricultural cooperatives between 2000 and 2015, our results show that cooperatives do indeed manage their results to avoid reporting decreases in earnings and small losses, more markedly in the latter case. This practice is more frequent in large cooperatives than in small ones and in more leveraged organizations. We also find that this practice decreases along with increased board size, which is inconsistent with the evidence for commercial firms. Our findings contribute to the fields of earnings management detection and corporate governance in cooperatives.