Black Economic Empowerment in the South African Wine Industry

KWV has been at the centre of the South African Wine Industry since 1918. In July 2004, KWV agreed that a broadly based Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) consortium would acquire 25.1 per cent of the shares of the KWV Group. The South African Wine Industry Trust, whose trustees are nominated by the Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs and by KWV, facilitated the deal. The agreement has features specific to the wine industry; it is also a milestone and a precedent for black economic empowerment in agriculture. This paper situates the politics of black economic empowerment in the context of the legacies inherited by the wine industry. It examines the complex political processes by which the participants mobilized funds and negotiated decisions to reconcile their objectives and realize their goals. By examining carefully the details of the sequences of events, the paper sheds light on the peculiar features of this case and raises questions about the nature, implications and significance of black economic empowerment in South Africa.     

Labour Market Adjustment and Intra‐Industry Trade: The Effects of Association on the Hungarian Food Industry

The structure of Hungary’s food trade expansion over the period 1995–2003 and its implications for labour market adjustment are examined. The contributions of the paper are threefold. First, we test the sensitivity of results to the choice of measurement and their implications for the results. Second, we introduce more industry‐specific control variables. Third, we distinguish the short‐ and long‐run adjustment effects. Our results provide some support for the smooth‐adjustment hypothesis of intra‐industry trade. Estimations confirm that industry‐specific variables may have a significant effect on adjustment costs.     

广东高职院校食品类专业设置与区域酒类产业对接研究

广东省是我国酒类消费第一大省,酒类产业是广东食品产业的新兴经济增长点.为主动适应区域内酒类产业发展对人才的需求,优化专业布局,本文以广东省高职院校食品类专业为例,分析专业设置中存在的问题,探讨专业结构调整和优化动态机制的构建路径,为广东省高职院校食品类专业设置与酒类产业发展的有效对接提供参考.     

Demand for animal‐derived food in selected Asian countries: A system‐wide analysis

Food consumption patterns in Asia show a trend away from staples toward high protein food derived from animal and dairy products, fruit and vegetables, fats and oils. Such changes in food consumption patterns are due to rising incomes, urbanization, globalization, and modernization of marketing infrastructure. In this article, we analyze the demand for the animal‐derived food group comprising meat (chicken, beef, pork, and mutton), eggs and fish, and derive income and price elasticities in seven Asian countries using the system‐wide approach. Demand homogeneity and Slutsky symmetry properties were tested and found to be compatible with the data. Our findings reveal that animal‐derived food as a group is a necessity (except in Taiwan) and its demand is price inelastic (except in Taiwan and Sri Lanka). The implied unconditional demand elasticities reveal that, in all countries (except beef in Japan and Taiwan), chicken, beef, pork, mutton, eggs and fish (except in Taiwan) are all necessities and the demand for all types of animal‐derived food in all seven countries are mostly price inelastic. The cross‐price elasticity estimates are mostly found to be positive, meaning that there is a higher degree of substitutability between chicken, beef, pork, mutton, eggs, and fish.     

The Development of Agrarian Capitalism in Post‐Soviet Russia

A core set of criteria have been met, so that it is accurate to speak of an agrarian capitalist system in Russia. The development of agrarian capitalism carries with it increased stratification, which is analysed along five dimensions: earned income, land expansion, use of credit, income from food sales and income from household enterprise. The paper demonstrates increasing differentiation between households, between professional cohorts and within professional cohorts. The data showing stratification within professions suggest that intra‐cohort stratification is driving most of the inter‐cohort stratification. The Russian model of agrarian capitalism and its processes of stratification have yielded a bifurcated countryside in which a thin stratum of ‘super winners’ has emerged. Economic processes have developed beyond simple stratification and have created the basis from which a rudimentary class structure appears to be forming.     

An Exploratory Study of the Factors Enhancing and Inhibiting Export Growth in the Chilean Wine Industry

This exploratory study investigates the main drivers that enhance and inhibit the export performance of Chilean wineries. The findings of this study suggest that the main constraints within the Chilean wineries in developing exports is the lack of financial resources, limited quantities of stocks for market expansion, management's lack of knowledge and experience, and the high cost of traveling and participating in trade shows. The main drivers of wine export performance according to the respondents are high quality of the wines, well-established network of international distributors, and marketing skills. The major inhibitors of developing wine exports are exchange rate variability, problems in selecting a reliable international distributor, and limited government support to promote wine exports. This study also shows that export managers of Chilean wineries have high educational levels and have international experience. The findings have important implications for export development efforts of both governments and managers.     

Politics, Economics, and the Regulation of Direct Interstate Shipping in the Wine Industry

In 1986, California passed legislation restricting the direct importation of wine from another state by California residents unless the originating state allowed direct shipment from California wineries to residents in that state. The result has been a patchwork of direct shipment regulations across states. We examine how various economic and public interest factors affect the likelihood that a state adopts a change in its direct shipment regulation and the nature of that change. Our results suggest that private and public sector economic considerations lie at the root of direct shipment regulations in the wine industry.     

The Post‐Privatization Role of Out‐growers' Associations in Rural Capital Accumulation: Contract Farming of Sugar Cane in Kilombero,Tanzania

Contract farming is widely promoted by multilateral agencies as an engine of economic growth in developing countries. The agencies often stress the need for governments to create strong farmers' organizations that can shoulder the risks associated with contractual relationships with large corporations. However, empirical studies of farmers' organizations in contractual schemes are few and tend to dismiss the performances of these organizations for not measuring up to donor expectations. This paper seeks to offer a more unbiased examination of what farmer's organizations actually do by recounting the development of out‐growers' associations in a contract farming scheme in central Tanzania. The paper explores the new space for social organization and business operations which emerged after privatization in 1998. It is argued that under certain conditions, out‐grower associations occupy a crucial position with regard to classic agrarian questions of land, labour and capital accumulation.     

Financial comparisons of under‐vine management systems in four South Australian vineyard districts*

Conventional viticultural practice in Australia and elsewhere involves removal of under‐vine vegetation using herbicides or cultivation. Concerns over the long‐term effects of herbicides on soil health, evolution of resistant weeds and possible impacts on human health motivate the search for alternative weed management options. Industry‐supported trials on commercial vineyards in four South Australian regions investigated standard practices of straw mulch and bare earth created with herbicides, compared to under‐vine cover crops, focusing on soil health attributes (soil carbon, soil microbiological processes, etc.) and grape yields in 2016 and 2017. Measured yields with the Control (herbicide) treatment were combined with published district grape prices and yields over the 12‐year (2006–2017) period, defining multivariate distributions of gross revenues ($/ha). Assuming all treatments produce grapes of equal quality and price as the Control, our results showed median per‐hectare gross margins greater than the Control in the Barossa district, lower than Control in Riverland, and mixed results in Langhorne Creek and Eden Valley. Multi‐year risk profiles, based on decadal whole‐farm (50 ha) cash flows for each treatment, were calculated using Monte Carlo analysis, based on historical yield and price distributions. These risk profiles showed the under‐vine treatments may result in major differences in long‐term vineyard financial viability.     

Efficiency in wine grape production: comparing long‐established and newly developed regions of South Africa

Efficiency, partly based on technology, is central to international competitiveness. This article applies a stochastic frontier inefficiency model to a panel of 77 wine grape farms in South Africa between 2005 and 2015 and allows the comparison of efficiency levels for the old established wine regions with those of newer entrants. Thus, we investigate whether experience plus first choice of location matters more than the follower's advantage of newer technology. In all regions, a greater share of permanent labor and increased supervision raised efficiency, while more inorganic fertilizer and less irrigation has the opposite effect. Innovations in trellising had insignificant effects (except in the old regions) but not replacing old vines reduced efficiency. However, a higher proportion of red varietals also lowered efficiency in the old regions due to a fall in the price of red wine as these farmers continued to concentrate on quality reds. The new regions compensated for falling prices by increasing crop size with irrigation and fertilizer and extending the area planted, but with less concern for quality. This appears to be more successful in efficiency terms, but as international demand for quality wine increases it may be a poor long‐term strategy.     

Innovation and University‐Firm R&D Collaboration in the European Food and Drink Industry

In the National Innovation System (NIS), knowledge is produced and accumulated through interactive innovation processes that are embedded in a national context, which in turn may help determine innovation. This paper investigates how product and process innovations in the European food and drink industry are affected by: (i) NIS structure; (ii) NIS output in terms of scientific publications and the supply of graduates; (iii) NIS cohesion and coordination; (iv) NIS scientific impact and specialisation. The main source of data on innovation by firms is the EU‐EFIGE/Bruegel‐UniCredit dataset. This is supplemented by information from the International Handbook of Universities, Eurostat and a bibliometric analysis of academic research output. Our results suggest that large research institutions in the public sector may well be detrimental to interaction between university and industry and to process innovation. The indicators used for public research assessment are not necessarily the most appropriate proxies of local knowledge spillovers.     

Food Regime Analysis in a Post‐Neoliberal Era: Argentina and the Expansion of Transgenic Soybeans

This paper uses the food regime literature to analyse the political and economic relations promoting the expansion of soybeans in Argentina following the post‐neoliberal turn in the early 2000s. Continuities of the agrarian expansion from the neoliberal to post‐neoliberal model highlight the state's role in supporting a neoliberal food regime. Neoregulation in the post‐neoliberal agenda continues to favour increased production of transgenic food over ecological and human‐health considerations. Moreover, the emergence of new corporate and transnational actors has contributed to a new form of corporate‐agrarian governance premised on biotechnology. First, a food regime lens is used to describe the expansion of transgenic soybeans in Argentina, followed by an analysis of planning documents to show the state's position in reproducing neoliberal discourses and policies favouring the expansion of agriculture. The conclusion discusses the utility of food regime analysis for explaining the new forms of agricultural governance in Argentina.     

Modelling the Crop Variety Demand of Semi‐Subsistence Households: Bananas in Uganda

We propose an approach to model the derived demand for crop varieties among semi‐subsistence farmers in a developing economy, and apply it to smallholder banana producers in Uganda. We model variety planting decisions as being composed of an extensive margin decision to grow a subset of locally available varieties (variety choice); and an intensive margin decision about the scale or extent of variety cultivation per farm (variety demand). We estimate variety demand equations using a more complete representation of the choice set upon which observed planting decisions are made. Computed elasticities of variety demand with respect to variety attributes indicate that the relative importance of consumption and production attributes varies by location and proximity to markets, from which we draw implications for the social and economic impact of crop improvement. The approach that we propose has broad appeal for analysing adoption decisions for modern or traditional varieties of both major and minor crops in developing countries.     

Analyzing the welfare‐improving potential of land in the former homelands of South Africa

This article contributes to the debate on the role of land in reducing poverty in rural South Africa. It uses the year of arrival in the former homelands as an instrument for land access and size. This identification strategy is based on the fact that African households were forcibly relocated to the homelands during the apartheid. Due to increasing population pressure, later arrivals were less likely to be assigned land. The results show that land has a large positive effect on household welfare. Because the homelands are relatively disadvantaged areas, these results provide a lower bound for the positive effects of land on household welfare.     

Persistence of firm‐level profitability in the European dairy processing industry

Based on autoregressive (AR) models and Arellano‐Bond dynamic panel estimation, this article analyses profit persistence in the European dairy processing industry. The sample comprises 590 dairy processors from the following five countries: Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The AR models indicate that cooperatives which account for around 20% of all firms in the dairy processing sector are not primarily profit oriented. In addition, the results point toward a high level of competition as profit persistence is rather low even if cooperatives are excluded. The panel model reveals that short‐ as well as long‐run profit persistence is influenced by firm and industry characteristics.     

Qualifying tradition: Instituted practices in the making of the organic wine market in Languedoc‐Roussillon,France

Within France, the Languedoc‐Roussillon region (now part of Occitanie) is home to about one third of the nation's area of certified organic vineyards. Each year, the world's largest organic wine fair, Millésime Bio, takes place in the city of Montpellier. This trade fair is an important site where organic wine is not only sold but also given meaning in the market, and importantly, differentiated from but made commensurate with conventional wine. In this paper, we examine processes and practices of ‘qualifying’ organic wine, including by means of relational processes of association and dissociation. Drawing on collaborative event ethnography and other qualitative methods, we focus on individual and institutional actors engaged in creating forms of commodified meanings that circulate with organic wine. In Languedoc‐Roussillon, these meanings reflect and reinforce a longer‐term so‐called shift to quality in wine production, yet also emphasize continuity over change, particularly through emphasis on ongoing role of artisanal, independent growers. We argue that qualification thereby works not only through association with independent growers but also by dissociation, specifically from Languedoc‐Roussillon's agrarian tradition of generic wine production and from the central role played by wine cooperatives in the social reproduction of the region's small‐holding grower class.     

Rural non‐farm diversification,agricultural feminisation and women's autonomy in the farm: evidence from India

This study contributes to the literature on the interlinkage between household non‐farm diversification (HND), agricultural feminisation and female autonomy in farming. The study uses unit‐level data from the Indian Human Development Survey for the years 2004 ‐ 2005 and 2011 ‐ 2012. The paper employs instrumental variable regression methods to study such interlinkages. The results show HND to be a significant factor contributing to the feminisation of agriculture. The study finds some evidence that the phenomenon is distress driven. Further, greater participation of women in agriculture, as well as women's access to land rights, significantly contributes to female autonomy in farm decision‐making. The results are robust to the use of alternative indicators of agricultural feminisation.     

External and Internal R&D,Capital Investment and Business Performance in the Spanish Agri‐Food Industry

We examine the effects of external and internal expenditure on research and development on the business performance of industrial agri‐food enterprises. For this purpose, a data sample from the Encuesta de Estrategias Empresariales en España (Survey of Business Strategies in Spain) was used, which includes information on more than 400 businesses over the period 2000–2008. The econometric analysis uses quantile regressions to address the vast asymmetry of the variables and to identify non‐linear relationships. The results reveal interesting new findings on the impacts of R&D on the agri‐food industry. The most evident, although not the most immediately apparent, relationship concerns the positive effects of external R&D on business performance. Internal R&D was also revealed to be an important way of enhancing the productivity of SMEs. In addition, the modernisation of the production process through investment in capital goods continues to be the main path to improve competitiveness. However, support was found neither for the inverse relationship, that is the most profitable firms are those that spend the most on R&D, nor for complementarity between external and internal R&D. The latter would imply that the bulk of Spanish agri‐food firms have at most the capacity for only one type of R&D.     

Testing Symmetry and Homogeneity in the Almost Ideal Demand System with Co‐integrated Data using Fully Modified Estimation and the Bootstrap

Conventional seemingly unrelated estimation of the almost ideal demand system is shown to lead to small sample bias and distortions in the size of a Wald test for symmetry and homogeneity when the data are co‐integrated. A fully modified estimator is developed in an attempt to remedy these problems. It is shown that this estimator reduces the small sample bias but fails to eliminate the size distortion. Bootstrapping is shown to be ineffective as a method of removing small sample bias in both the conventional and fully modified estimators. Bootstrapping is effective, however, as a method of removing size distortion and performs equally well in this respect with both estimators.     

State‐contingent analysis of farmers’ response to weather variability: irrigated dairy farming in the Murray Valley,Australia

The agricultural sector is commonly regarded as one of the most vulnerable to climate change. Current understanding of the impact of climate change on this sector relies on the underlying assumptions about farmers’ possible responses to weather variability, including changes in crop choice, input combinations and land management practices. Many previous analyses rely on the implicit (and restrictive) assumption that farmers operate under a fixed technology set across different states of nature. This assumption, represented through stochastic production or profit functions, is commonly made but seldom tested and may understate farmers’ responses to climate change if state‐contingent production technologies are, in reality, more flexible. The potential for farmers to adapt production technologies in response to unforeseen events is at the core of the state‐contingent approach. Advanced in Chambers and Quiggin (2000), the theory contends that producers can manage uncertainty through the allocation of productive inputs to different states of nature. In this article, we test the assumption that farmers’ observed behaviour is consistent with the state‐contingent production theory using farm‐level data from Australia. More precisely, we estimate the milk production technology for a sample of irrigated dairy farms from the southern Murray–Darling Basin over the period from 2006–2007 to 2009–2010.