Bacon, J. Richard

Gempesaw, Conrado M., II

Halbrendt, Catherine K.

English

Research Papers in Economics

RESEARCH REPORTS & UPDATES
The Industry: Trade, Policy, and Profitability
Moderator: James Epperson,
University of Georgia
UPDATES
Food Trade Flows of the
Delaware River Port System
by
J. R. Bacon
Universityof Delaware
Newark,Delaware
C. K. Halbrendt
University of Delaware
Newark, Delaware
C. M. Gempesaw 11
University of Delaware
Newark, Delaware
Problem River handled 19percent of all U.S. imports; but,
by 1980, the river system’s import market share
The Delaware River Port System is one of had dropped to less than 15 percent. Since 1980,
four major port systems on the northeast Atlantic the ports have slowly regained some of the import
seaboard. In 1979, the ports of the Delaware market share, 17.2 percent by 1987. In contrast,
Journal of Food Distribution Research June 901page 39the total U.S. market share for exports ranged
from a high of 3 percent in 1980 to a low of 1.4
percent in 1987; the results were huge trade defi-
cits. According to the Delaware River Port
Authority, the Delaware River system presently
has the largest import market share and the small-
est export market share of the four major port
systems in the Northeast. These deficits indicate
that there are many ships leaving the Delaware
River with less than full holds; and this pattern
shows no signs of changing.
Methodology
Secondary data from the Delaware River
Port Authority will be used to accomplish three
objectives. The first is to identi~ the current and
potential import/export food and non-food prod-
ucts of the Delaware River Port System. The
second is to identify the current trading partners
of the port system and determine the potential to
expand trade. And finally, based upon the data
gathered, the authors plan to forecast potential
import demand for the river system’s trading
partners. The demand for imports can be stated
as a f(Pw,E,I)
where:
Pw = world price
E = exchange rate
Implications
The United States is one of the world’s
major food producers. The extent to which U.S.
food products, raw to further processed, can be
traded on the world market for both non-food and
other food products will greatly influence the
growth potential of the food distribution industry.
In addition, increased food exports could be an
important factor in reducing the growing U.S.
trade deficit.
Contact
C. K. Halbrendt
Dept. of Food and Resource Economics
University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19717-1303
I = income
June 90/page 40 Journal of Food Distribution Research

FOOD TRADE FLOWS OF THE DELAWARE RIVER PORT SYSTEM

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