21,304 research outputs found

    Agrarian Reform in the Philippine Banana Chain

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    The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) of 1986 had been the most far reaching postwar institutional change in rural Philippines. To evaluate the dynamic impact of CARP in the banana sector, we have compared the development of smallholders in both the domestic market and export chains. For exports the reform introduced contract agriculture between cooperatives of small Cavendish banana growers and export firms. Small farmers of banana cultivars like Lakatan supply the crop individually to open domestic market channels. Incomes and living conditions of reform beneficiaries improved significantly compared to former plantation workers wages, but remained below the official family living wage rate. Per Kg. of bananas the income of non-reformed domestic market growers has been of the same magnitudes as for the export chain. However, the percentage of the latter has been much lower in terms of the final consumers' prices. The farmers of the domestic market have also more upgrading opportunities to organize cooperatives and reduce production and transaction costs. The export contract growers have already cooperatives and for upgrading will need the consent of powerful downstream agents in the chain. The reason for the limited impact of CARP is the power concentration by five multinationals and four influential Filipino families, which dominate the profitable wholesale supply and export stages of the banana chain.

    SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT IN PERISHABLES: A PRODUCE APPLICATION

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    The objective of supply chain management (SCM) is to remove time and cost from supply chains, improving profitability and/or competitiveness. It is possible through conceptual advances, utilization of computer hardware and software, and other advances in electronic technology. Business literature is used to define the concept. Most applications and benefits have resulted from alliances between large retailers and large packaged goods vendors. Specific applications of SCM in the produce industry, with emphasis on factors such as perishability and production variability, are discussed. Firm-size implications are important. While small and mid-sized growers may find the cost to be high, the innovation of logistics provided by outside suppliers is an alternative. A third-party provider was interviewed; its approach and services are documented; and industry implications are discussed.Agribusiness,

    Environmental Implications of the Foodservice and Food Retail Industries

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    The growing size and importance of service sector industries in the U.S. economy raises questions about the suitability of the current environmental management system to deal with perhaps a changing set of environmental concerns. This paper analyzes the environmental impacts associated with the activities undertaken and influenced by two service sector industries—foodservice (e.g., restaurants) and food retail (e.g., grocery stores). This paper is not a definitive analysis of the magnitude of the environmental effects of these industries, but is intended to be a comprehensive survey of the types of environmental implications—positive and negative—of these two service sectors. The foodservice and food retail industries are components of a larger industrial system, the food marketing system, that extends from the production of food to the marketing of food products to consumers. The U.S. foodservice industry comprises an estimated 831,000 individual establishments, employs an estimated 11 million people (about 8.6% of the U.S. workforce), and is expected to have total sales of 376billionin2000.TheU.S.foodretailindustryencompassesapproximately126,000grocerystores,employsapproximately3.5millionpeople(about2.7376 billion in 2000. The U.S. food retail industry encompasses approximately 126,000 grocery stores, employs approximately 3.5 million people (about 2.7% of the U.S. workforce), and had sales totaling 449 billion in 1998. For this analysis, we use a simple conceptual framework that segregates the environmental impacts of these industries into three categories: direct, upstream, and downstream. We conclude that, while the direct environmental impacts (e.g., energy use, solid waste generation; air and water emissions; food safety concerns; refrigerants) of these industries are important to recognize and address, opportunities also exist for these industries to address their upstream and downstream environmental impacts.

    Exclusivity of Agrifood Supply Chains: Seven Fundamental Economic Characteristics

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    The IFAMR is published by the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association. IFAMA. www.ifama.orgagrifood supply chains, exclusive economic characteristics, risk, market power, globalization, Agribusiness, Demand and Price Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Risk and Uncertainty, Q130,

    New Product Development and Product Supply Within a Network Setting: The Case of the Chilled Ready-Meal Industry in the UK

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    This paper analyses inter-organizational networks that link together firms operating in the food processing and distribution industry in the UK. In doing so, the paper draws on insights recently developed by Mark Casson that treat inter-firm networks as an institutional response to the changing costs and opportunities of information management. Detailed analysis of product innovation and supply chain management issues within the industry, exemplified by the growth of chilled ready-meals, leads to the identification of two distinct but complementary inter-firm networks: a network of control and a network of innovation. In each case, the study finds that the critical information is derived from the retailers’ interface with consumers and thus that these information-based networks are effectively controlled by the leading supermarket chains. The study’s conclusions are considered in relation to the recent findings of the Competition Commission following its investigation into grocery retailing in the UK

    Traceability in the U.S. Food Supply: An Application of Transaction Cost Analysis

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    Suboptimal supply of food and agricultural traceability is framed in a transaction cost analysis. We propose a model that considers the variables of opportunism potential, agency costs, uncertainty, asset specificity, frequency, and transaction costs. The model is then applied to the development of a typology of feasible governance modes – market, hybrid, firm, or public bureau, considering levels of transaction costs and competencies of private firms. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed and future research opportunities are suggested.traceability supply, transaction cost economics, agency theory, Agribusiness,

    Institutional Innovations and Models in the Development of Agro-Food Industries in India: Strengths, Weaknesses and Lessons

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    Agro-industries are given high priority in India particularly because of their great potential for contributing to development. The emphasis on village-based agro-industries was introduced almost a century ago in India by Mahatma Gandhi as an important ideology and corner-stone of the independence movement. The approach has undergone substantial transformation since then, but major challenges to its success in development remain: how to organize sustained production and procurement from large numbers of small farmers, how to ensure adoption of the right technology and practices to generate quantity and quality output at a reasonable cost, how to obtain capital for ensuring good processing technology and meeting the high working capital requirements in a fluctuating business, how to deliver strong marketing efforts to compete and open nascent markets, and how to ensure effective ownership, management and control to ensure performance for its main stakeholders of producers, consumers and investors. To address these challenges, effective institutional frameworks are a must, and a number of innovations and institutional models have emerged in India. These include the HPMC model, the AMUL model, the Pepsi model, the E-choupal model, the Nestle model, the Heritage model, the Suguna model, the Reliance model and more. The paper uses available literature and data to examine the performance of several of these models with respect to the above mentioned challenges. Many findings and lessons emerge which would be useful for business and for guiding supportive policies and practices in developing countries.

    Livestock industrialization, trade and social-health-environment impacts in developing countries: a case of Indian poultry sector

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    This paper presents the results of an empirical study of the Indian Poultry Industry which is specially focused on the social and environmental outcomes generated by the rapidly increasing scale of egg and broiler production in India. Among the effects of these rapid changes that occurred in the poultry industry include increased risk for animal health, changes in demand patters in terms of amount, quality, and food safety, higher prices for high value items; but there is also a threat to smallholders that they will be excluded from more demanding markets. There are important questions, which have arisen with the industrialization of poultry activity in India. Is the scaling up of production driving small producers to disadvantage on account of high transaction costs, policy distortions and environment externalities? Why do some poultry farms have higher incomes than others? Do large farms earn more profit per unit of output than small farms? What explains the differentials in efficiency? An attempt is made here to take stock of these changes and to assess their social and environmental outcomes particularly those that affect the welfare of poor. The paper starts by examining the state of the Indian Poultry Industry, and then it goes in dealing with selected socio-economic, health, and environment changes that affect the competitiveness of livestock production including domestic institutional arrangement of food safety standards.Indian poultry sector; livestock industrialization; competitiveness; transaction costs; environmental externalities; contract farming
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