Outlook for Asian Dairy Markets: The Role of Demographics, Income, and Prices,

The paper first presents a 10-year outlook for major Asian dairy markets (China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam) based on a world dairy model. Then, using Heien and Wessellsï¾’s technique, dairy product consumption growth is decomposed into contributions generated by income growth, population growth, price change, and urbanization and these contributions are quantified. Using the world dairy model, the paper also analyzes the impacts of alternative assumptions of higher income levels and technology development in Asia on Asian dairy consumptions and world dairy prices. The outlook projects that Asian dairy consumption will continue to grow strongly in the next decade. The consumption decomposition suggests that the growth would be mostly driven by income and population growth and, as a result, would raise world dairy prices. The simulation results show that technology improvement in Asian countries would dampen world dairy prices and meanwhile boost domestic dairy consumption.

Technical and Scale Efficiencies for Chinese Rural Credit Cooperatives: A Bootstrapping Approach in Data Envelopment Analysis

Chinese rural credit cooperatives (RCCs) are a major supplier of credit to the rural sector in the country. However, Chinese RCCs are currently encountering operating problems, and an experimental reform is being carried out to restructure and reform the RCCs. In order to have some idea about the efficacy of reform, it is important to have an understanding of the institutional economics underlying the delivery of rural credit in China. This paper evaluates pure technical efficiency, overall technical efficiency, and scale efficiencies for RCCs in China using nonparametric techniques. The use of a bootstrap algorithm is proposed to perform inference for efficiency measures. Keywords: bootstrapping, Chinese rural credit cooperatives, data envelopment analysis, scale efficiency, technical efficiency.

Measuring Food Safety Control in U.S. Hog Farms Using a Composite Indicator

Consumer demand for reliable food product quality and safety is growing. This trend, together with increased public regulation and attention to the legal liability of food processors and retailers creates derived demand for food safety assurance in farm production. In consequence, farms have adopted different measures, voluntarily or compulsorily, in their production practice to ensure reduced food safety risks from the farm product. Multiple individual indicators exist which reflect different facets of food safety practice. In fact, it is likely that production of a safer product is a result of several factors. However, little is known about what practices effect greater food safety control at the farm level, or how farms that take greater food safety control fare in comparison to other farms. This study develops a composite food safety control indicator by aggregating data from a set of individual indicators of food safety control and investigates the variation in food safety practices across farms. Moreover, we show how some relevant variables may influence farm food safety control, thus provide empirical evidence for the design of food safety-enhancing agricultural policy measures.food safety control, hog farm, composite indicator, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Effects of Food Safety Information on Meat Demand: A Comparison of the United States and Canada

In addition to the traditional economic factors such as income level and prices, food safety has a potentially significant impact on consumers' meat preferences. Therefore, understanding the consumers' responses to food safety information is important to policy analysts and the meat industry. As the U.S. and Canada have both experienced cases of BSE, it is useful to compare U.S. and Canadian consumer responses to food safety events to better understand factors that influence consumer response. The objective of this study is to compare both own- and cross-commodity impacts of publicized food safety information on U.S. and Canadian meat demand by setting up individual food safety indices for each meat product including beef, pork, and poultry using monthly data. This study provides valuable information about the consumer responses to food safety events in both the U.S. and Canada. Its new contribution is through use of recent and monthly data, construction of unique food safety indices and the ability to compare consumer responses in the two countries.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Food Security and Biofuels Development: The Case of China

Biofuels production is expanding rapidly all over the world, driven by rising crude oil prices, the desire of countries to be energy independent, and concerns about climate change. As developed countries, especially the United States, are expanding biofuels production, developing countries are expanding their biofuels industries as well, to power their growing economies. However, developing countries must address the food security issue when they develop biofuels. As China is a developing country with rapid economic growth, population growth, significant demand for fuels, and food security concerns, it serves as a good example for studying the opportunities and challenges faced by developing countries under current conditions. This study analyzes the background, history, and current situation of biofuels development in China. Some implications for developing countries are also provided

SCALE ECONOMIES AND EFFICIENCIES FOR CHINESE RURAL CREDIT COOPERATIVES

This paper evaluates scale economies and efficiencies for Rural Credit Cooperatives (RCCs) in China using both parametric and nonparametric techniques. Diseconomies of scale and allocative inefficiency are found. The results reveal the need for RCCs to decrease their size and the need for government to liberalize the financial market.Agribusiness,

The Outlook for Asian Dairy Markets: The Role of Demographics, Income, and Prices

The paper first presents a 10-year outlook for major Asian dairy markets (China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam) based on a world dairy model. Then, using Heien and Wessells\u27s technique, dairy product consumption growth is decomposed into contributions generated by income growth, population growth, price change, and urbanization and these contributions are quantified. Using the world dairy model, the paper also analyzes the impacts of alternative assumptions of higher income levels and technology development in Asia on Asian dairy consumptions and world dairy prices. The outlook projects that Asian dairy consumption will continue to grow strongly in the next decade. The consumption decomposition suggests that the growth would be mostly driven by income and population growth and, as a result, would raise world dairy prices. The simulation results show that technology improvement in Asian countries would dampen world dairy prices and meanwhile boost domestic dairy consumption

Challenges for China's Agricultural Exports: Compliance with Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures

Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, International Relations/Trade, Q13, Q18,

THE WELFARE EFFECTS OF STATE TRADING ENTERPRISES: THE CASE OF US-CANADA MALTING BARLEY TRADE

The Canadian wheat Board is a single-desk state trading agency responsible for the marketing of all barley sold for human domestic consumption and for export. The U.S is the biggest importer of Canadian six-row malting barley. This study aims to analyze the welfare effects of State Trading Enterprises (STEs) as it applies to the US-Canada malting barley trade. A policy simulation was developed to determine the redistributive efficiency of single STE, a competitive structure, and a structure with oligopolistic processors.International Relations/Trade,

Effects of Credit Constraint on Productivity and Rural Household Income in China

Chinese rural household has been always facing credit constraints. Few institutions lend loans to farmers because of financial risks. Farmers have to use usury or other informal sources to meet the financial needs for production. This credit constraint has been forcing farmers to deviate from optimal resource allocation and production arrangement. Consequently, it affects farmers’ income growth. Therefore, the objective of this study is to examine how credit constraint affects agricultural productivity and rural household income and discuss some consequent policy implications.rural credit constraint, productivity, household income, China, Agricultural Finance, International Development,