DEVELOPING A FARMERS' EXPORT COOPERATION MODEL (FEKOM): EVIDENCE ON EXPORT MARKET INTEGRATION AND COMPETITIVENESS FROM UZBEKISTAN

Improving smallholder farmers’ access to international markets remains a major challenge in developing economies due to high transaction costs, limited market information, inadequate logistics, and fragmented production. This study develops and empirically validates the Farmers’ Export Cooperation Model (FEKOM) to explain how farmer cooperation enhances export competitiveness and farm welfare through institutional and value-chain mechanisms. The model integrates endogenous and exogenous determinants of cooperative participation with economies of scale, knowledge and innovation capacity, export readiness, value chain integration, export market access, export competitiveness, and farmers’ welfare into a unified analytical framework. Primary data were collected from 85 fruit and vegetable farms in the Samarkand region of Uzbekistan using a structured questionnaire. The proposed hypotheses were tested using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results confirm that farmer export cooperation significantly improves economies of scale, knowledge and innovation capacity, export readiness, export competitiveness, and farmers’ welfare. Value chain integration was found to be the strongest determinant of export market access, while improved market access significantly enhanced export competitiveness.