Five disadvantages of primary sector

Prices are often volatile due to inelastic demand. e.g if there is a ‘good harvest’, supply will increase and there will be a fall in the price of primary products. However, because demand is inelastic, this would lead to a fall in revenue.

coffee-supply-price-growers

The volatile price of coffee – can make planning difficult.

Supply can also be volatile due to weather and disease. For agricultural crops, there is always a risk of crop failure, which could cause economic hardship in one particular year.

Limited resources. One day developing economies may run out of its finite primary products, e.g. precious metals could become scarce. Without diversification, this would leave the economy with a void.

Discourages investment in other aspects of the economy. Concentrating on primary products does not always help the long-term development of an economy because it can contribute towards a lack of investment in other aspects such as education and industrial production. Comparative advantage can change over time. It’s important to not just look at the present comparative advantage, but prospects for next 10 or 20 years.

There is a low-income elasticity of demand for primary products. With a rise in global income, there is a proportionately smaller percentage rise in demand for primary products. (agricultural products tend to be income inelastic). Therefore, if you produce primary products, you may see lower rates of economic growth than countries who produce manufacturing goods – which are more income elastic. The Prebisch-Singer hypothesis suggests that countries who concentrate on primary products are vulnerable to a declining terms of trade.

There are 5 points

Hope it helps!!!