COMPETITION AMONG FOREIGN AND CHINESE AGRO-FOOD ENTERPRISES IN THE PROCESS OF GLOBALIZATION

Based on various case studies, this article examines the interaction of foreign investors and local operators in globalization in the agro-food market in China. The study found that to break the limitation of the high-end market and to position mainly in the middle market were critical for international brands to succeed. Asian companies approached the China market as an insider because of cultural proximity. The latter, plus focused management and effective technology, made their operations profitable easily, but also exposed them to the risk of overexpansion. Quality products at affordable prices were the catch-up approach adopted by local players. At the early stage of globalization, winning tactics for local enterprises include imitating and participating in foreign investments, and exploring the markets where foreign investors have no advantages. In the China market, foreign and domestic enterprises were competing, complementing, and collaborating with each other to allow each to achieve its goals. The study analyzes the sophisticated relationships between domestic and foreign players, and provides inputs to strategic discussions of foreign investors and Chinese local enterprises about how to improve their competitive positions.Agribusiness, International Relations/Trade,

Alternative Price Expectation Formulation and Information Access

Demand and Price Analysis,

Modelling the Dynamics of Weed Management Technologies

An appropriate economic framework for valuing the benefits of weed management technologies is to treat weeds as a renewable resource stock problem. Consequently, the weed seed bank is defined as a renewable resource that changes through time due to management and seasonal conditions. The goal of decision-makers is to manage this (negative) resource so as to maximise returns over some pre-specified period of time. A modelling framework is presented for evaluating the biological and economic effects of weed management. The framework includes population dynamics, water balance, crop growth, pasture growth and crop/pasture rotation models for measuring the physical interactions between weeds and the environment. These models link in with numerical optimal control, dynamic programming and stochastic dynamic programming models for determination of optimal decision rules and measuring economic impact over time of policy scenarios.weeds, modelling, dynamic analysis., Land Economics/Use,

Optimising woody-weed control

Woody weeds pose significant threats to the 12.3 billion dollar Australian grazing industry. These weeds reduce stocking rate, increase mustering effort, and impede cattle access to waterways. Two major concerns of woody-weed management are the high cost of weed management with respect to grazing gross margins, and episodic seedling recruitments due to climatic conditions. This case study uses a Stochastic Dynamic Programming (SDP) model to determine the optimal weed management decisions for chinee apple (Ziziphus mauritiana) in northern Australian rangelands to maximise grazing profits. Weed management techniques investigated include: no-control, burning, poisoning, and mechanical removal (blade ploughing). The model provides clear weed management thresholds and decision rules, with respect to weed-free gross margins and weed management costs.woody weeds, weed control, chinee apple, rangelands, grazing, stochastic dynamic programming, Livestock Production/Industries,

Bringing Protein Engineering and Natural Product Biosynthesis Together

In this issue of Chemistry & Biology, Zhang and colleagues developed a yeast cell surface display strategy to effectively evolve the substrate specificity of DhbE, one of the adenylation domains of the bacillibactin synthetase complex. The method yields DbhE variants that have dramatically altered substrate specifities toward unnatural aryl substrates

Economic Issues in the Management of Plants Invading Natural Environments: Scotch Broom in Barrington Tops National Park

Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius, L.), is an exotic leguminous shrub, native to Europe, which invades pastoral and woodland ecosystems and adjoining river systems in cool, high rainfall regions of southeastern Australia. Broom has invaded 10,000 hectares of eucalypt woodland at Barrington Tops National Park in New South Wales, and is having a major impact on the natural ecology of the sub-alpine environment. It is extremely competitive with the native flora, retarding their growth and in many areas blanketing the ground and preventing growth of many understorey species in open forest areas. An active program to manage this invasion is being implemented by the National Parks and Wildlife Service. The management issues include whether eradication or containment is economically desirable, and when biological control is economically desirable. Management choices depend on the marginal costs of increments of government intervention, effects of uncertain budgets on the control of broom, choice of control measures and effects of uncertain values of biodiversity. These issues are addressed through the application of a detailed bioeconomic model of broom management.Scotch broom, economic issues, management issues, natural environments, bioeconomic model, Environmental Economics and Policy,

AGROINDUSTRIALIZATION IN EMERGING MARKETS: OVERVIEW AND STRATEGIC CONTEXT

This article offers an overview for a special issue on agroindustrialization. It reviews eleven articles analyzing the agroindustrialization process in Latin America and Asia. It sets out a conceptual framework from the organizational economics and strategic management literature to enhance the understanding of the process of agroindustrialization from a competitive strategy point of view.Agribusiness, Industrial Organization,

Valuing the biodiversity gains from protecting native plant communities from bitou bush (Chrysanthemoides monilifera subsp rotundata (DC.) T.Norl.) in New South Wales: application of the defensive expenditure method

Valuation of the gains from protection of biodiversity is difficult because the services that provide the benefits do not normally pass through markets where prices can form. But the services sometimes pass through markets where consumers or producers behave in a market-oriented manner, and so the values implicit in this behaviour can be identified and derived. Estimates of the benefits of biodiversity protection are derived from the costs of protecting native plant communities from a major weed in Australia, by following this approach. In 1999, invasion of coastal areas of New South Wales by bitou bush (Chrysanthemoides monilifera subsp. rotundata (DC.) T. Norl.) was listed as a key process threatening native plants under the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995. In accordance with the Act, the Department of Environment and Climate Change prepared a Threat Abatement Plan (TAP) to reduce the impacts of bitou bush on biodiversity at each threatened site. The costs of protecting sites vary closely with the number of priority native species and communities at each site. Following standard economic assumptions about market transactions, these costs are interpreted to provide values the benefits of protecting extra species, communities, and sites. Key words: Bitou bush, Chrysanthemoides monilifera, threat abatement plan, valuation of biodiversity, benefit-cost analysis, weed control, defensive-expenditure method.Bitou bush, Chrysanthemoides monilifera, threat abatement plan, valuation of biodiversity, benefit-cost analysis, weed control, defensive-expenditure method, Demand and Price Analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Eradication of Exotic Weeds in Australia: Comparing Effort and Expenditure

Weeds have many adverse impacts on agriculture and the environment and therefore are often targets of eradication attempts. Eradication attempts involve large commitments of labour and financial resources over significant periods of time. Using data from 12 Australian weed eradication attempts the authors compare work hours and expenditure on each attempt for various initial-infestation sizes. Analysis of a limited data set shows: (1) that while the eradication effort increases with the initial area of infestation, the effort applied per hectare actually decreases; (2) that application of a greater work effort was not the reason why completed eradications were successful; and (3) that the larger the initial infestation size, the smaller the amount of resources applied per hectare for eradication.weeds, eradication, work effort, expenditure, infestation size, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Local buckling of beam structures with double-T type sections

En este trabajo se expone una metodología de varias etapas para determinar, con mínimo esfuerzo computacional el factor de carga crítico que produce el fenómeno de inestabilidad local de abolladura de las paredes de los perfiles tipo doble-T. Para ello, se estudia a nivel local como placa delgada cada una de las paredes que forman el perfil. Se constata que es suficiente con analizar las zonas más solicitadas (alas y alma) de la estructura.A stepped methodology for the evaluation, with limited computational effort critical buckling load factor which produces the instability of the walls of double-T sections is proposed in this work. For this purpose, each wall of the cross-section studied in a local level as a thin plate. It is ratified that it is enough to check the most compressed flange and the web of the most loaded beams of the structure.Peer Reviewe