Market Performance of Potato Auctions in Bhutan

Market performance with respect to a main horticultural export commodity in Bhutan is the subject of this paper. Imperfections in (market) infrastructure and market structure and conduct may prevent an optimal price for farmers. Market performance is assessed by testing the law of one price for this commodity. This is done by testing three series of auction price data on both long-run and short-run price integration. It is concluded that auction prices were interrelated both in the long and short run with one of the three auctions as the price-leading market. Policy implications are suggested.Auctions, Bhutan, Law of one price, Market performance, Potato marketing, Marketing, C22, L1, M31, O1, Q13,

Vertical Price Leadership on Local Maize Markets in Benin

This paper considers vertical price relationships between wholesalers and retailers on five local maize markets in Benin. We show that if the common factor and the long-run disequilibrium error are not explicitly taken into account in testing the channel model, one can easily be wrong about how restrictions on the error-correction structure must be interpreted in terms of economic power in the channel. The empirical results show interesting differences between markets and reveal that retailers play a more prominent role in the price formation process than generally assumed in the literature. Retailers in the two major towns do not allow wholesalers to behave as vertical price leaders, but in the two larger rural centers, wholesalers involved in arbitrage among urban markets are able to influence price formation.Vertical price leadership, Marketing channels, Cointegration, Common Factor, Benin, Demand and Price Analysis, C32, D40, L10, O18, Q13,

Governance for quality management in smallholder-based tropical food chains

The paper provides a framework that focuses on the linkages between several key dimensions of supply chain organization and performance of perishable tropical food products. The focus is on the relationship between governance regime and quality management. However, two other but related variables are taken into account because they impact on the relationship between governance and quality management. These variables are channel choice and value added distribution in the supply chain. Governance regime is reflecting how to enhance coordination and trust amongst supply chain partners and how to reduce transaction costs. Quality management is dealing with how to manage food technology processes such that required quality levels can be improved and variability in quality of natural products can be exploited. Governance regimes in relation to quality management practices are discussed to the extent that supply chain partners are able, or are enabled, to invest in required quality improve¬ments. Reduction of transaction costs, creation of trust-based networks and proper trade-offs between direct and future gains may offer substantial contributions to effective quality management and enforcement. This framework has been applied to nine case studies on smallholder-based food supply chains originating from developing countries (Ruben et al., 2007). Three of these case studies are discussed in this paper to illustrate what challenges can be derived from the case studies. The selected case studies concern fish originating from Kenya, mango originating from Costa Rica and vegetables produced in China.Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy,

Determining the optimal policy for a home delivery milk retailing: A simulation approach

A food retailing firm operates in a complex situation where its economic result is influenced by a large number of variables: own marketing variables, characteristics of customers and area of location and the nature of competition. This paper demonstrates how all these influences can be integrated into a model and how this model subsequently can be used to find the optimal policy of the retailing firm under various conditions. The specific application in the paper is home delivery milk retailing in the Netherlands

ISO 9000 -- A MARKETING TOOL FOR U.S. AGRIBUSINESS

The relevance of the ISO 9000 series of quality management systems (QMS) for U.S. agribusiness is analyzed. Certified firms from several industries were surveyed to determine their before (ex ante) and after (ex post) perspectives of the QMS. Results for the agribusiness subsample are compared to those for firms from other industries to determine if they behave differently. Anticipated marketing advantages (increasing market share and providing access to new markets) of the QMS were critical factors that encouraged the pursuit of the certificate. The average cost to attain certification was $101.400 and to maintain certification was an additional$26,500 per year.Agribusiness, Marketing,

Een onderzoek naar het toekomstperspectief van de melkman in Nederland

In de periode augustus 1975-mei 1976 is door de vakgroep Marktkunde en Marktonderzoek van de Landbouwhogeschool een onderzoek ingesteld naar de toekomstmogelijkheden van de bezorgende melkdetailhandel in Nederland. Dit perspectief-onderzoek geschiedde in opdracht van het Bedrijfschap Detailhandel in Melk en Melk- en Zuivelprodukten en werd gesubsidieerd door het Ministerie van Economische Zaken. Zoals te doen gebruikelijk bij dergelijke onderzoekingen, werd het onderzoek begeleid door een beleidscommissie van deskundigen uit het bedrijfsleven. Het onderzoek vloeide voort uit behoefte aan meer inzicht in de thans bestaande structurele problemen in de bezorgende melkdetailhandel. Deze problemen komen onder meer tot uiting in de afname van het aantal melkslijters van 8.297 in 19i1 tot 5.883 in 1976 en in het teruglopend marktaandeel van de bezorgende melkdetailhandel in de totale detailhandelsomzet aan melk en melkprodukten van 85% in maart 1968 tot 40% in oktober 1976. Het onderzoek had tot doel op basis van inzicht in de huidige toestand en in de toekomstige ontwikkelingen tot aanbevelingen te komen voor het beleid van de ambulante melkdetailhandel

Onderzoek naar de mogelijkheden van de bezorgende melkdetailhandel

De onbevredigende ontwikkelingen in de bezorgende melkdetailhande1 hebben ertoe geleid dat het Bedrijfschap Detai1handel in Me1k, Me1k- en Zuive1produkten een onderzoek heeft doen instel1en naar de omvang en de oorzaken van de problemen, die zich in deze bedrijfstak voordoen. In het Kader van het structuuronderzoek nieuwe stijl zou ernaar moeten worden gestreefd om op zo kort mogelijke termijn tot een inzicht in de situatie van de branche en tot zo concreet mogelijke aanbevelingen te komen. Bij de uitvoering van het onderzoek kon worden beschikt over aankoopgegevens uit het nationaal consumentenpane1 van het Nederlands Instituut voor Agrarisch Marktonderzoek over de peri ode 18 mei 1975 - 14 juni 1975. Het Produktschap voor Zuive1 ste1de de gegevens van een enquete onder de bezorgende detailhandel in melk en melkprodukten uit 1974 ter beschikking voor nadere analyse. Door het Economisch Instituut voor het Midden- en Kleinbedrijf werd het basismateriaal van een enquete onder honderd melkslijters uit 1973 voor verdere bewerking beschikbaar gesteld. Het onderzoek werd begeleid door een Beleidscommissie waarin zitting hadden: vertegenwoordigers van het Bedrijfschap Detailhandel in Melk, Melk- en Zuivelprodukten, van het Produktschap voor Zuivel, van particuliere organisaties uit diverse schakels van de bedrijfskolom van melk en melkprodukten, en van de Ministeries van Economische Zaken en van Landbouw en Visserij. Deze commissie stond onder voorzitterschap van Ir. B. van Dam. (zie bijlage 1 voor de samenste1ling van de Beleidscommissie)

Unlocking markets to smallholders: Lessons from South Africa

This book assesses the institutional, technical and market constraints as well as opportunities for smallholders, notably, emerging farmers in disadvantaged areas such as the former homelands of South Africa. Emerging farmers are previously disadvantaged black people who started or will start their business with the support of special government programs. Public support programs have been developed as part of the Black Economic Empowerment strategy of the South African government. These programs aim to improve the performance of emerging farmers. This requires, first and foremost, upgrading the emerging farmers skills by providing access to knowledge about agricultural and entrepreneurial practices. To become or to remain good farmers they also need access to suitable agricultural land and sufficient water for irrigation and for feeding their cattle. Finally, for emerging farmers to be engaged in viable farming operations, various factors need to be in place such as marketing and service institutions to give credit for agricultural inputs and investments; input markets for farm machinery, farm implements, fertilizers and quality seeds; and accessible output markets for their end products. This book develops a policy framework and potential institutional responses to unlock the relevant markets for smallholders

Unlocking markets to smallholders: Lessons from South Africa

This book assesses the institutional, technical and market constraints as well as opportunities for smallholders, notably, emerging farmers in disadvantaged areas such as the former homelands of South Africa. Emerging farmers are previously disadvantaged black people who started or will start their business with the support of special government programs. Public support programs have been developed as part of the Black Economic Empowerment strategy of the South African government. These programs aim to improve the performance of emerging farmers. This requires, first and foremost, upgrading the emerging farmers skills by providing access to knowledge about agricultural and entrepreneurial practices. To become or to remain good farmers they also need access to suitable agricultural land and sufficient water for irrigation and for feeding their cattle. Finally, for emerging farmers to be engaged in viable farming operations, various factors need to be in place such as marketing and service institutions to give credit for agricultural inputs and investments; input markets for farm machinery, farm implements, fertilizers and quality seeds; and accessible output markets for their end products. This book develops a policy framework and potential institutional responses to unlock the relevant markets for smallholders

Supersymmetry in the shadow of photini

Additional neutral gauge fermions -- "photini" -- arise in string compactifications as superpartners of U(1) gauge fields. Unlike their vector counterparts, the photini can acquire weak-scale masses from soft SUSY breaking and lead to observable signatures at the LHC through mass mixing with the bino. In this work we investigate the collider consequences of adding photini to the neutralino sector of the MSSM. Relatively large mixing of one or more photini with the bino can lead to prompt decays of the lightest ordinary supersymmetric particle; these extra cascades transfer most of the energy of SUSY decay chains into Standard Model particles, diminishing the power of missing energy as an experimental handle for signal discrimination. We demonstrate that the missing energy in SUSY events with photini is reduced dramatically for supersymmetric spectra with MSSM neutralinos near the weak scale, and study the effects on limits set by the leading hadronic SUSY searches at ATLAS and CMS. We find that in the presence of even one light photino the limits on squark masses from hadronic searches can be reduced by 400 GeV, with comparable (though more modest) reduction of gluino mass limits. We also consider potential discovery channels such as dilepton and multilepton searches, which remain sensitive to SUSY spectra with photini and can provide an unexpected route to the discovery of supersymmetry. Although presented in the context of photini, our results apply in general to theories in which additional light neutral fermions mix with MSSM gauginos.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures, references adde