Food System Dynamics (E-Journals)
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Efficiency of Milk Processing Companies – Parametric and non-Parametric Approaches
Get PDFIn the paper, the authors considered estimation of efficiency, which measures the ability of a company to obtain the maximum output from given inputs. The comparison of results obtained by using two approaches: parametric (on the example of the SFA method, Stochastic Frontier Analysis) and non-parametric (on the example of the DEA method, Data Envelopment Analysis) has been carried out. Data from the companies of a key food processing sector in Poland, namely the milk processing sector, was used in the paper. This sector was chosen due to the large size of the sample, as well as the strategic importance and significant contribution to the production of the entire agri-food sector. Furthermore, with respect to the milk processing sector there are no comparative analyzes carried out, which justifies the need for their conduction. The analysis covered the period 2006-2011, the sample included from 103 up to 160 enterprises (depending on the analyzed year).Basing on the conducted analysis it was claimed that the integral use of the SFA and the DEA methods– combining advantages of both methods – allows preserving the analogy when comparing the results and formulating reliable conclusions
Policy Impacts in the Dairy Supply Chain: The Case of German Whole Milk Powder
Get PDFThe dairy sector is one of the most important agro-food markets in the European Union (EU). In addition to the fresh dairy products, cheese and butter considerable amounts of other dairy products with long sell-by dates are produced like skimmed milk, semi skimmed milk and whole milk powder. These products have some advantages in longer storage periods and easy transportation and thus they are often designated not only for domestic storage but also for international markets. As other internationally traded dairy products milk powders depict remarkable price variations in the last years which do find good matches in the domestic markets. Despite these variations the German industry regards milk powder as an interesting product for further investments driven by luminous international demand prospects. So the likely impacts between the international and the domestic prices movements are an important topic for the German dairy industry as well as German milk producers.In the past, the EU dairy market has been highly supported by the Common Market Organization (CMO) while, at the same time, milk supply has been restricted by the milk quota regime. High administrative price for dairy products were protected by significant import tariffs isolating the EU dairy sector from international trade. In addition, exports subsidies allowed successful competition with exports from third countries, not only for intervention products but also for other dairy products like whole milk powder. However, with the restructuring of the support starting with the Agenda 2000, the coupled market price support in form of intervention prices of butter and skimmed milk powder were stepwise reduced in favour of decoupled payments. Also invention purchases were restricted and the abolition of the milk quota regime was announced for 2014/15 and phased in by yearly increases of the national quotas. At the same time applied export refunds were suspended for most dairy products
Mark Online, a Full Scale GIS-based Danish Farm Management Information System
Get PDFWith its oceanic climate with moderate summers and mild winters in combination with a highly organized infrastructure, farming has traditionally been very intensive in Denmark. The cultivated land constitutes 26,000 km² out of a total of 43,000 km². Most of the arable land is used for intensive plant production with a high level of mechanization and management practices. For more than three decades The Knowledge Centre for Agriculture (KCA) has developed and implemented ICT Farm Management Information Systems (FMIS) for planning and documentation of all aspects of crop production. Today, updated field specific information on field size, soil type, crops, varieties, soil tillage, sowing, fertilization, pesticide usage etc. is now hosted in the GIS-based FMIS, Mark Online covering more than 80% of the arable land. A centralized Microsoft SQL data base forms the core base for all the information. Based on a MS .NET framework a number of multi-tier client-server applications have been developed. Most of the desk top applications consist of relative thick clients based on Win forms, whereas HTML5 apps and Android/IOS native apps are used for the mobile platform. Data exchange between the clients and server are based on a web service layer using data compression to improve performance. Farmers are one of the two primary target groups. Local agricultural advisors working on behalf of farmers not having their own software is the other primary target group. Nonetheless, both groups are mainly focusing on field record planning, decision making and documentation. Data is transferred between the Mark Online system and the authorities by XML-based web services or ordinary file upload to official websites. The Open Geospatial Consortium’s Web Feature Service (WFS) provides another interface allowing requests for geospatial features, which is used between Mark Online and external GIS
Do US Consumers’ Perceive Local and Organic Food Differently? An Analysis Based on Means‐End Chain Analysis and Word Association
Get PDFThe market of local and organic food is still a niche market in the USA, despite its strong growth rates. Both offer consumers an alternative to a globalized anonymous food supply chain. Yet local food and organic food seem to beoverlapping and to some degree competing food concepts. While the organic food market somehow has managed to “mature”, being widely distributed in national supermarket chains, local food in the US still seems to be tied to a“grassroots food movement”, being mainly distributed over short food supply chains. With several trends indicating sustained growth for local and organic consumption, this paper first addresses different connotations of local foodand compares them to standard definitions of organic food. The main focus is to explore the perception of US consumers towards local and organic food, using results from two different studies. Both studies use laddering techniques and word association tests, which were undertaken at Cornell University in New York State and at the University of Florida in the city of Gainesville. These findings are used to achieve a better understanding of the image of local and organic food, and the motives and values of local and organic food consumers
EU School Fruit Scheme: Strengthening Local Businesses
Get PDFThe EU School Fruit Scheme (SFS) provides children with fruits and vegetables (F&V), aiming to promote consumption of F&V among European school children. In addition, another objective of the program is to stabilize the fruit and vegetable market in the EU. The program varies between EU countries and with respect to some countries, e.g. Germany, even between the different federal states involved. This paper will concentrate on the specific situation in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), Germany.Our research therefore aims to map and analyze the situation of companies involved in the SFS in NRW, to reveal the social and economic driving forces for those companies to get engaged in the SFS, identify the networks that have developed as well as the factors that lead to success for those companies. For this purpose quantitative data of commodity flows of delivered goods and the logistics are combined with case studies gained from qualitative Interviews.The results show, that companies involved in the school fruit scheme range from small farms and one man retail businesses to large multinational retail companies. According to our findings especially small and medium sized enterprises (SME) benefit from the SFS in NRW. In urban areas some firms have developed relationships with more than 30 schools leading to high turnover for these companies from their engagement in the SFS. Generally supply relationships vary in economical characteristics (variety, product value, origin) as well as in social attributes (motivation, social embedding)
Does the Sustainability of Food Products Influence Consumer Choices? The Case of Italy
Get PDFIn this paper we analyse if there is a diffuesed interest among consumers about the environmental impacts of their food choices, and try to capture the different types of attitudes of Italian consumers with respect to environmental sustainability of food products. The analysis builds on a survey based on vis-a-vis interviews with 240 consumers in Milan, and on a cluster analysis. The results highlight a high level of stated concern about environmental issues and about possible impacts of personal food consumption choices on the environment. Nevertheless, when investigating their actions during everyday shopping we have identified four groups of consumers: (1) those who take into consideration the environmental information on labels do not require additional information; (2) those for which environmental information on labels does not have a great effect on purchase, but would like to receive more information; (3) those for which the presence of environmental information directs product selection and would also like to receive more; (4) those that do not take into account environmental issues when purchasing and are not interested in receiving more information about the impacts of the products
Imperfect Competition in the Italian Dairy Chain: Consequences for the Price Transmission and Welfare Distribution
Get PDFThe milk quotas were introduced in Italy in 1984; from that time onward, the dairy chain has progressed in technology and organization with consequences for the market competition. The Aglink-Cosimo simulations suggest milk production will return to an increasing path, driven by a fairly optimistic demand outlook for the improved macroeconomic 2020 future prospects in the EU-27 economies and milk production will exceed the present level by about 3%. Milk deliveries would be expected to increase in Italy by a slightly higher rate, according with the consumption trend of dairy products. Purpose of this paper is to analyze the consequences of structural adjustments of the dairy chain for the competitive price setting assuming the retailers and processors having the control on the market prices, causing changes on the welfare distribution. The analysis is based on derived demand and price-transmission equations, using a successive oligopoly model. The conjectural hypothesis about the players provides the framework for estimating the degrees of price transmission in a dynamic setting with agents at the industry and retail levels (rather than firm) are acting as two oligopoly players. The conjectures about the oligopoly depending on the structure (number of competitors, size and degree of collusion), across the vertical stages of the dairy chain allow to simulate different degrees of market imperfection reflected on the price transmission and welfare distribution. (Dhar and Cotterill, 2000; McCorriston and Scheldon, 96; Morgan and Rayner, 1988). Six simulations for price transmission and ten simulations for welfare distribution are performed assuming different collusive patterns and results are used to check for the market efficiency hypothesis
Price versus Non-price Incentives for Participation in Quality Labeling: The Case of the German Fruit Juice Industry
Get PDFQuality assurance and labeling play an important and increasing role in firms’ marketing strategies. In almost all cases, a price incentive has been stressed as the major incentive for firms to participate in such schemes. We argue here that important non-price incentives for participation in quality labeling may exist, too. In German retailing, it can be observed that discount retailers are listing more and more foods with quality labels. Processors may then participate in voluntary quality labeling in order to enter the large and growing market of discount retailers. The price-premium versus the market-entry hypothesis are analyzed theo-retically. We investigate then in an empirical hedonic pricing model for the German fruit juice market and for participation in the quality label of the Deutsche Landwirtschafts-Gesellschaft (DLG) which of the two hypotheses is consistent with the data. There is strong support for the market-entry hypothesi
Institutional Change in Germany’s Farmers Associations: Impacts of the Dairy Conflict
Get PDFThe abolishment of the milk quota, increasing fluctuation in milk prices and further economic and emotional factors resulted in the so called dairy conflict. The paper focuses specifically on the conflict between the German Farmers’ Association and the Federal Dairy Farmers Association resulting in two milk delivery strikes as culmination points within the conflict. Objectives of the study were to analyze the main conflict indicators, the conflict pattern and the process of change in the agricultural association structure in Germany. The basic methodology is a qualitative research approach. Main data collection methods are in-depth interviews and qualitative document analysis. Results show a high cross-linking between the abolishment of the milk quota and identified emotional key drivers. Structural consequences of this conflict can be seen in the reduction of political influence of the German Farmers’ Association
Adaptation in Food Networks: Theoretical Framework and Empirical Evidences
Get PDFThe paper concerns the integration in food networks under a governance point of view. We conceptualize the integration processes in terms of the adaptation theory and focus the issues related under a transaction cost economics perspective. We conjecture that the allocation of decisions rights between the parties to a transaction is a key instrument in order to cope with the sources of basic uncertainty in food networks: technological innovation, sustainability strategies, quality and safety objectives. Six case studies are proposed which contribute to corroborate our conjecture. Managerial patters based on a joint decision approach also are documente