Canadian Chicken Industry: Consumer Preferences, Industry Structure and Producer Benefits from Investment in Research and Advertising

The Canadian chicken industry has operated under supply management since the mid-1970s. Canadian consumer preferences for chicken have grown dramatically since then possibly in response to concerns about health and the levels of fat and cholesterol in red meats. However Canadian consumers are also looking for convenience with their food purchases. Canadians are buying their chicken in frozen further processed forms, fresh by cut without skin and bone and in a variety of other different ways reflecting their unique willingness to pay for various attributes. There is also an increasing trend for retailers and processors to brand the fresh chicken product sold through grocery stores (for example, Maple Leaf Prime). The preferences Canadian consumer have for various chicken products, the prices they are comfortable paying and the strategies followed by processors/retailers can directly affect the outcomes of industry wide strategies such as investment in generic advertising and research or the impact of international market changes such as border closures. This research is an initial attempt to quantify Canadian consumer preferences – for fresh product by type – for product by level of processing – for chicken product by cut - for fresh chicken by brand - to examine the impact of substitutability on a variety of market shocks. The various different disaggregations of Canadian chicken consumption are used in a number of simulation models to illustrate how important preferences are to producer returns when there are market shocks. If Canadians found all chicken products available in the grocery store to be perfectly substitutable then previous policy analysis assuming chicken is one homogeneous product would be sufficient for industry policy analysis purposes. If Canadians view all the different chicken products as imperfectly substitutable and given that various chicken products are produced in relatively fixed proportions (white and dark meat, for example) further understanding of how consumers make their purchase decisions could enhance the industries ability to predict outcomes. For example, border closing to Canadian exports ( as a result of an Avian influenza outbreak, for example) would result in a significant increase in the dark meat products available for sale through Canadian grocery stores. The results presented in this research could provide a clue as to how much dark meat prices might decline while white meat prices might remain unaffected. The results reported suggest that at the consumer level, chicken fresh and frozen products are not perceived to be perfect substitutes, within a narrow category such as fresh chicken breasts, they are not perceived as even close substitutes, within the fresh category branded products such as those developed by Lilydale and Maple Leaf are not perceived as perfect substitutes. As well, an initial look at the demand for individual chicken products by household suggests that there is far from a common buying pattern across Canadian households, even within a single province. The results also suggest that health and convenience attributes are driving Canadian consumer preferences. Simulation results highlight the fact that pricing strategies followed by major processors/retailers within Canada can influence the returns to generic advertising and research. Further research could provide additional robust estimates of the chicken product substitutability existing in the Canadian market and an increased understanding of the market characteristics currently operating. The results presented here suggest that further work in this area is important for the chicken industry to pursue.consumer behaviour, chicken consumption, differentiated products, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Marketing, D12, Q11, Q18,

CURRENT ISSUES AFFECTING TRADE AND TRADE POLICY: AN ANNOTATED LITERATURE REVIEW

This review provides a base of literature describing current issues and research on the impacts of lobalization and the industrialization of agriculture and recent approaches to analyze and model agricultural trade and trade policies. Three key factors of the survey are differentiated goods, global economic integration and international supply chain linkages. The review covers 182 publications, which are presented alphabetically by author with a brief annotation describing how it relates to the above criteria. The articles are also indexed by keyword. A brief summary highlights the documented literature and includes a series of issues for future discussion and research.International Relations/Trade,

Certification of Pork Products

The objective of this paper is to provide insights on the welfare distributional impact on consumer and producer welfare resulting from the development and implementation of a credence certification program in the U.S. pork sector. The certification program can provide various levels of tracking and tracing in the marketing chain. The modeling framework follows that of Nilsson (2005), which encompasses product differentiation and substitution across meat products at the consumer level and across live animal types at the farm level. Processors and retailers have potentially bilateral market power and can supply either or both certified and conventional meat products. One of the key findings is that while as the conventional market contracts and the certified market expands as expected, the magnitude depends on whether suppliers are single-or multiproduct providers. On aggregate, total welfare increases by 15 to 24 percent depending on industry structure.Marketing,

Labeling genetically modified food in India: Economic consequences in four marketing channels

In 2006, India proposed a draft rule requiring the labeling of all genetically modified (GM) foods and products derived thereof. In this paper, we use primary and secondary market data to assess the economic implications of introducing such a mandatory labeling policy for GM food. We focus on four products that would likely be the first affected by such a regulation in India: cottonseed oil, soybean oil, brinjal (eggplant), and rice. We find that GM food labeling would generate a specific market outcome for each of these products. With GM labeling, virtually all cottonseed oil would be labeled as GM, with limited costs for all actors involved, but also limited benefit for consumers. Labeling soybean oil derived from GM crops could affect market shares for edible oils at the benefit of domestic oils, and non-GM soybean oil could appear on the market at a very limited scale. Labeling GM brinjal would be extremely challenging. Assuming it was implemented, some non-GM brinjal would be sold at a premium in high-income retail outlets, while virtually all others would be labeled GM. A similar outcome would occur for rice, with high-quality rice used for both domestic consumption and exports markets certified non-GM and most of the remaining rice labeled as GM. In each of the cases, labeling would generate significant adjustment costs for the industry and large enforcement costs, and consumer benefit would not always be visible and would highly depend on the degree of enforcement. In fact, voluntary labeling could achieve less-distorted results with lower costs and therefore appears to be a superior regulatory solution. Still, provided enforcement is ensured, a well-designed mandatory labeling regulation with limited product coverage, a non-zero labeling threshold, and an informative labeling content would lead to a much better outcome and lower costs in India than the current draft rule, especially if it is accompanied by a large awareness campaign regarding GM food and consumer safety in India.Genetically modified food, Labeling, market shares, domestic consumption, soybean oil, export markets, rice, cottonseed oil, enforcement costs, consumer safety, Food marketing, Genetic resources,

SUPPLY CHAIN COMPETENCY: RECIPE FOR CEREAL AND LIVESTOCK MARKETING IN ALBERTA?

This study examines the nature of Supply Chain Management (SCM) in the Canadian barley industry, economic theories related to SCM, identifies SCM drivers and reviews the Canadian barley marketing system. Two surveys were conducted; one on the feed barley segment of the market; another on the malt barley segment of the market. These surveys provide an outline of the attributes sought by buyers of feed barley in Alberta and by buyers of malt barley in Canada and the United States. A further goal of these surveys was to assess the extent of motivations for SCM in the barley supply chain. Study methods include scaling, factor analysis and stated preference techniques to analyze purchasers' preferences for specific product attributes, business relationships and product source. The major attributes of feed barley sought by Alberta feed manufacturers appear to be physical characteristics such as moisture level, absence of foreign material, high bushel weight and uniform appearance of kernels. Features identified as of moderate importance included levels of certain key amino acids, starch level in the barley sample, as well as such seller characteristics as whether the seller was personally known to the buyer, and willingness of the seller to enter into a long-term supply contract. At the level of the Alberta feed mill industry, results therefore indicate that physical, readily identifiable attributes dominate in the selection of feed barley. As a result, the study identified that SCM is not yet a part of the awareness of barley buyers at feed mills. Among buyers of malt barley, physical or easily assessed attributes such as size of kernel, germination percentage, variety and location where produced ranked highly in a factor analysis as important to malt barley buyers. While results from the sample of Canadian and US buyers did not indicate strong potential for SCM in the malt barley sector, the study found there to be differences in attributes desired by US versus Canadian malt purchasers. Main differences were the concern of US buyers with the region where the barley was grown, and the apparently much higher willingness of US buyers to obtain their malt barley from more than one source. These differences may suggest a potential for SCM in malt barley focused on procuring supplies from regions identified as preferred locations for barley used in malt production.Industrial Organization,

Spatial Competition in Private Labels

Previous studies find that private labels increase retailers' bargaining power with manufacturers and allow retailers to price discriminate. We use a spatial discrete choice model to show that retailers also use store brands to create market power through store differentiation, but not as a means of building market share.Marketing,

Abstracts of Invited and Selected Papers and Organized Symposia, WAEA Annual Meetings, San Francisco, California, July 6-8, 2005

Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

E-Commerce in Agri-Food Sector : A Systematic Literature Review Based on Service-Dominant Logic

Agricultural e-commerce (AE) has attracted substantial attention within various research disciplines for several years. In this paper, we present a literature review of the recent state of AE research published from 2000 through to 2021 in 83 journals. Based on Service-Dominant Logic (S-D logic) and Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), we identify six research themes, and a theoretical continuum is applied to reveal how research themes and scholarly approaches fit into the S-D logic framework. A general increasing trend in the number of articles confirms the escalating interest in AE research; however, different themes perform unevenly with S-D logic. Even though research themes such as Consumer Willingness are getting closer to S-D logic premises, and ideologies that are increasingly approaching S-D logic have been applied to analyzing AE topics, unfortunately, there remains a paucity of papers that wield S-D logic in the AE field. Our research focuses on an innovative emerging AE field and, simultaneously, provides an approach of integrating S-D logic into analyzing academic papers in the AE domain. This research may shed some light on future possibilities that S-D logic could support the co-creation of value between consumers and agribusiness managers, and other broader disciplines such as management and marketing.Peer reviewe

Business model optimization plan for S.F. Group's fresh e-commerce business

Nowadays, the market is increasingly fierce, so many companies seek new growth points through business diversification. However, logistics companies have not succeeded in integrating business in the e-commerce industry. In order to answer the failure of logistics enterprises in the field of E-commerce, this paper chooses S.F. BEST as the research object. Case study is conducted on JD.com FRESH and MISSHFRESH to explore their successful experience in business model and the diversity of the industry. After that, we proposed feasible suggestions on the problems existing in S.F. Group. The study of this project found that fresh e-commerce not only needs to provide customers with quality products and delivery services but also needs to establish a good relationship with customers through platforms and channels. However, S.F. Group lacked the ability of platform and channel management, and its market positioning was obviously wrong, so it suffered from business failure and financial losses. Aiming at the shortcomings of S.F. Group's business model in market positioning accuracy and resource utilisation ability, this project proposes improvement suggestions and a development plan. By improving the implementation of the plan, we hope to help S.F. Group reshapes its business model and business operation process, and help the company achieve business diversification and vertical integration.Na actualidade, o mercado está cada vez mais feroz, levando a que muitas empresas procurem novas vias de crescimento através da diversificação dos negócios. No entanto, as companhias de logística não conseguiram desenvolver os seus negócios no sector de comércio electrónico. A fim de dar conta do fracasso das referidas companhias no domínio do comércio electrónico, o presente trabalho tem o S.F. BEST como objecto de investigação. O estudo de caso é conduzido para explorar a experiência bem-sucedida do modelo de negócios e a diversidade do setor. Em seguida, propusemos sugestões viáveis sobre os problemas existentes no S.F. Grupo. O estudo do presente trabalho constatou que o comércio electrónico actual não apenas necessita de oferecer aos clientes produtos de qualidade elevada e prestar serviços de entrega eficaz, mas também precisa de estabelecer um bom relacionamento com os clientes através de várias plataformas e canais. No entanto, o S.F. Grupo não possuía a capacidade de gestão de plataforma e canal, com um posicionamento obviamente errado no mercado, por consequência, sofreu de fracasso nos negócios e perdas financeiras. O presente trabalho propõe sugestões de melhoria e um plano de desenvolvimento, focando nas deficiências do modelo de negócios do S.F. Grupo de negócios acerca da imprecisão de posicionamento no mercado e incapacidade de utilização de recursos. Através de melhorar a implementação do plano, esperamos ajudar o S.F. Grupo na reestruturação do modelo de negócios e do processo de operação de negócios, ajuda a empresa a alcançar a diversificação de negócios e integração vertical