Information Sharing in Food Supply Chains

Information sharing among firms within many industries accounts for a substantial part of the gains from information technology adoption in these industries. In this paper we examine the determinants of information sharing between retailers and their suppliers, in the food industry supply chain. Using a data set known as the Super Market Panel Data gathered by the University of Minnesota's Food Industry Center, the behavior of food retailers is examined in their adoption of information sharing technologies that facilitate vertical exchange of information with suppliers. Evidence supports the hypothesis that retail firms with larger number of suppliers are more inclined to share, rather than to withhold, information. Prior theoretical work suggests that this happens because retail firms with large number of suppliers are less concerned about opportunistic behavior of suppliers from the misuse of retailer information by the supplier. We also find that self‐distribution chains are more inclined to share information. Finally, the structure of the market plays an interesting role in the type of information sharing platforms that the retailers adopt. Dans de nombreux secteurs, l'échange d'information entre entreprises représente une part substantielle des gains issus de l'adoption des technologies de l'information. Dans le présent article, nous avons examiné les déterminants de l'échange d'information entre les détaillants de la chaîne d'approvisionnement alimentaire et leurs fournisseurs. À l'aide de l'ensemble de données Supermarket Panel Data, établi par le Food Industry Center de l'University of Minnesota, nous avons examiné le comportement des détaillants en alimentation quant à l'adoption des technologies d'échange d'information facilitant l'échange d'information vertical avec les fournisseurs. Les observations appuient l'hypothèse selon laquelle les détaillants qui comptent de nombreux fournisseurs sont plus disposés àéchanger qu’à retenir l'information. D'après des études théoriques antérieures, cette situation serait attribuable au fait que les détaillants qui comptent de nombreux fournisseurs sont moins préoccupés par le comportement opportuniste de fournisseurs qui utiliseraient de façon malveillante de l'information sur le détaillant. Nous avons également observé que les chaînes d'autodistribution étaient plus enclines àéchanger de l'information. Finalement, la structure du marché joue un rôle intéressant dans le type de plateformes d'échange d'information qu’adoptent les détaillants.     

Global Commodity Chains and African Export Agriculture

The last twenty years or so have seen a new conjuncture in international trade in tropical agricultural products. That conjuncture combines both changes in the organization of the (Northern) manufacturer and consumer segments of the global commodity chains for those products, and in marketing arrangements in their (Southern) countries of origin, associated with structural adjustment and liberalization. This introductory essay provides the context for the case studies that follow, first by introducing some of the key concepts and analytical issues in the global commodity chain (GCC) approach and other recent relevant literature such as the French 'convention' theory. It then sketches an historical framework for examining international trade in tropical agricultural products, with brief illustrations of the specific trajectories of Africa and some African countries within that framework. Finally, it shows how a number of issues are explored in the case studies presented, including how current changes might affect the future prospects of smallholder ('peasant') production of tropical export crops.     

Managing Opportunism in Value-Added Supply Chains: Lessons From Organics

In recent years there has been an increasing demand for specific characteristics in food products pertaining to origin, quality, health, and environmental factors. Due to the credence nature of many products, it is difficult to determine if products reflect the traits under which they are marketed. Cheating through misrepresentation and unauthorized practices presents a threat to the development of identity-preserved production and marketing (IPPM). In Canada, value-added IPPM systems have not been highly formalized except for the organics sector, but new traits from biotechnology may lead to greater market segmentation. Through interviews with organic supply chain stakeholders, we can achieve a better understanding of the efficacy of formalized quality-control regulation by examining characteristics of these supply chains that are susceptible to opportunism.     

Evolving Supply Chains in the Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods Industry

The rapid growth of the nutraceutical and functional foods industry in recent years has necessitated the development of new supply chain relationships. These supply chains are interesting because of the uncertain regulatory, technological and market environment in which they have evolved. Challenges include concentration in upstream input supply and downstream manufacturing sectors, intellectual property rights protection, asset specific investments in an uncertain market environment, and establishing credible quality signals for credence attributes in an era of regulatory uncertainty and consumer scepticism.     

Global Responsibility for Agricultural Policy

Global Responsibility for Agricultural Policy The Federal Government initiated a comprehensive reorientation of agricultural policy, which was targeted at a consistent implementation of the ecological, social and economic principles of sustainable farming. The main positions of the Federal Government were introduced into the negotiations on EU agricultural reform. They were, in part, also reflected in the proposals made by EU Commissioner Fischler. The objectives consisted of the maximum possible decoupling of direct payments from production, reinforcement of rural area support and the tying of payments to specific standards of consumer, animal and environmental protection that are valid throughout the EU. Sometimes the current debate eclipses important requirements for a European agricultural policy that will be viable in the future as well. It must achieve two objectives: pressing ahead with a globally sustainable farming sector and achieving more equity between North and South. The criteria of future agricultural policy should be more market orientation, attaching great importance to consumer, animal and environmental protection and to the regional aspect. The Agriculture Ministers of the EU Member States embarked on the road to greater market orientation, more emphasis on quality and to relating farming support more to social goals. We should stick to these targets, keeping in mind Europe's responsibility for the developing countries and our global interrelationships. Une responsabilité globale pour la politique agricole Le Gouvernement fédéral vient ?entreprendre une réorientation complète de la politique agricole, destinée à mettre en application de façon cohérente les principes écologiques, économiques et sociaux de ?agriculture durable. Les principales orientations du Gouvernement fédéral ont été introduites dans les négotiations sur la réforme de ?agriculture européenne. Elles se reflètent aussi partiellement dans les propositions faites par le Commissaire européen, M. Fischler. Elles consistent à découpler au maximum les paiements directs de la production, à renforcer le soutien au développement des zones rurales, et à lier les paiements au respect des standards spécifiques qui sont valables dans toute ?Union européenne en matière de protection des consommateurs, des animaux et de ?environnement. II arrive parfois que les débats ?actualitééclipsent la nécessité?une politique agricole valable aussi pour ?avenir. Une telle politique doit avoir deux objectifs:disposer à?avenir ?un secteur agricole globalement durable et mettre plus ?équité dans les rapports Nord/Sud. II faut que les caractéristiques de la politique agricole de ?avenir soient une plus grande orientation par le marché, et une plus grande importance attachée à la protection des consommateurs, à celle des animaux, et au développement régional. Les Ministres de ?Agriculture des états membres de ?Union Européenne se sont engagés sur la voie de ?orientation accrue par le marché, de ?accent mis sur la qualityé, et ?un plus grand souci vis à vis des objectifs sociaux dans la répartition des aides. Nous nous en tiendrons à ces objectifs, gardant en tête les responsabilités de ?Europe vis à vis des pays en voie de développement et de ses relations au niveau mondial. Agrarpolitik in globaler Verantwortung Die Bundesregierung hat eine umfassende Neuausrichtung der Agrarpolitik eingeleitet. Diese zielt darauf ab, die ökologischen, sozialen und wirtschaftlichen Prinzipien einer nachhaltigen Landwirtschaft konsequent umzusetzen. Die Bundesregierung hat ihre wichtigsten Positionen in die Verhandlungen zur EU‐Agrarreform eingebracht, zum Teil fanden sie sich auch in den Vorschlägen von EU‐Kommissar Fischler wieder. Ziele waren eine möglichst weitgehende Entkoppelung der Direktzahlungen von der Produktion, der Ausbau der Förderung ländlicher Räume und die Bindung der Zahlungen an bestimmte EU‐weit gültige Standards des Verbraucher‐, Tier‐ und Umweltschutzes. Die aktuelle Diskussion überlagert zuweilen wichtige Anforderungen an eine europäische Agrarpolitik, die auch zukünftig Bestand haben wird. Sie muss zwei Ziele erreichen: eine weltweit nachhaltige Landwirtschaft voranbringen und ihren Beitrag zu mehr Nord‐Süd‐Gerechtigkeit leLsten. Kriterien einer zukünftigen Agrarpolitik sind mehr Marktorientierung und ein hoherer Stellenwert für Verbraucher‐, Tier‐und Umweltschutz sowie für regionale Aspekte. Die Agrarministerinnen und Agrarminister der EU‐Mitgliedstaaten sind den Weg zu mehr Markt, zu mehr Qualität und zu einer Unterstützung der Landwirtschaft für ihre gesellschaftlichen Aufgaben gegangen. Dieser Weg sollte auch angesichts der Verantwortung Europas für die Entwicklungsländer und unserer Verflechtungen in der Welt weiter gegangen werden.     

The Costs and Returns of Agricultural Credit Delivery

Borrower-level data from 963 agricultural lending relationships are used to examine how several factors influence the costs and returns of extending agricultural credit. The results provide estimates of the costs and returns of agricultural lending and the extent to which these costs and returns are influenced by factors such as loan volume, lender/borrower relationship factors, and contract terms. The findings indicate that economies of size exist in agricultural credit delivery and that lenders pass most of these benefits on to borrowers through lower interest rates. In addition, the impacts of lender/borrower relationship factors were relatively small.     

Competition in Canada's Agricultural Value Chains: The Case of Grain

To open this address, I would like to advocate for membership in the Canadian Agricultural Economics Society (CAES). The fact that applied economics offers theory and methods that help us address topics as diverse as the Canadian grain value chain and the economics of species at risk speaks well for the future of our discipline. There is a vast array of work for us to do. Membership in the CAES offers an excellent link to the most up‐to‐date research in this area through our journal and conferences. Every society I attend inspires me to examine my own research and look at problems in new ways using new tools I learned from presentations made by the members of CAES. The main message of my address is to promote the application of Game Theory strategies as a way to understand behavior in the grain value chain. These tools are already being applied in areas as different as optimizing tradable systems of environmental goods and assessing competitive behavior in beef packing. Tout d'abord, je tiens à mentionner que j'appuie l'adhésion à la Société canadienne d'agroéconomie (SCAE). Le fait que l’économie appliquée offre la théorie et les méthodes qui nous aident à examiner des sujets aussi variés que la chaîne de valeur des grains du Canada et l’économie des espèces en péril augure bien pour l'avenir de notre discipline. La diversité du travail à accomplir est immense. Être membre de la SCAE procure un lien privilégié à la recherche de pointe grâce à notre Revue et à nos conférences. Aujourd'hui, mon message vise principalement à promouvoir l'application des stratégies de la théorie des jeux pour comprendre le comportement au sein de la chaîne de valeur des grains. Certains domaines, tels que l'optimisation des systèmes d’échange des biens environnementaux et l’évaluation du comportement concurrentiel dans le secteur du conditionnement du b?uf, utilisent déjà ces outils. La panoplie d'outils à notre disposition est mise en valeur dans notre Revue et lors de nos congrès. Tous les congrès auxquels j'assiste me motivent à examiner ma propre recherche et à analyser les problèmes sous un angle différent grâce aux nouveaux outils mis au point et présentés par les membres de la SCAE.     

Global Food Chains, African Smallholders and World Bank Governance

This paper critically examines the World Bank's analysis of the development of agribusiness in Africa in the World Development Report 2008 in relationship to its governance policies, which seek to introduce institutional reforms to promote private and public sector linkages with the participation of civil society. The paper argues that this confuses food chain governance (control over quality and the logistics of production) with democratic governance and essentially promotes oligopolization of the food industry and the interests of the powerful in the name of smallholder farmers.     

大城市高档猪肉供应链问题及发展途径

一、高档猪肉的产品和需求特性　　所谓高档猪肉是指按照“绿色食品”标准生产的 ,以大城市高收入理性消费者为目标客户 ,由配送中心配送 ,在专卖店和超市销售的猪肉。高档猪肉之所以受到高收入理性消费者的青睐 ,主要是因为它具有以下产品特性 :从核心产品来看 ,具有安全性好、营养丰富、口味独特、食用品质好等特征。这些特征使产品提供的核心利益与高收入理性消费者所追求的利益相一致 ;使产品在提供使用价值的同时 ,又能满足消费者的心理需要。从形式产品来看 ,高档猪肉具有标志明显、品质好、包装精细等特征。在保证品质的前提下 ,高档…     

Identity Preservation and International Trade: Signaling Quality across National Boundaries

Changing consumer preferences, technological advances, global agri-food markets and increasing regulation of food quality and safety have created the need for identity-preserved production and marketing (IPPM) systems, which bridge the gap between differentiated consumers' wants and traditional commodity-based agri-food production and marketing systems. The international trading regime is ill equipped to deal with these changes. In the absence of an agreed set of trade rules to regulate trade in differentiated food products, relying on IPPM systems or barring imports of low-quality goods become domestic policy choices. The latter is shown to be an inferior policy option. The sustainability of an IPPM across national boundaries is dependent upon its ability to credibly signal quality to consumers. Incentives to cheat erode this credibility. Horizontal and vertical cooperation through thirdparty certification are key to the long-run sustainability of IPPM systems.     

Agricultural Supply Response: A Survey

This paper surveys the literature on agricultural supply response to prices in developing countries. Empirical estimates of elasticities depend both on the methodology adopted and on country-specific factors relating to technology, economic structure and macro constraints. The paper seeks to establish some general conclusions on supply responsiveness within these limitations. Supply response to output prices at the aggregate and at the crop levels is considered first. Crop-specific acreage elasticities range between zero and 0.8 in the short run while long-run elasticities tend to be higher — between 0.3 and 1.2. Yield elasticities are smaller and less stable than acreage elasticities. Clearly, inter-crop pricing can be relied upon to effect shifts in the commodity composition of agricultural output. Evidence also suggests that supply elasticities vary systematically with such factors as price and yield risks, multiple-cropping, the importance of the crop, farm incomes, farm size, tenancy and literacy. The most controversial and important aspect of supply response is the effect on aggregate agricultural output of agriculture's terms of trade. Conventional time-series estimates range from 0.1 to 0.3. A major cross-country study reports an aggregate elasticity as high as 1.66. It is argued that cross-country estimates are apt to exaggerate aggregate responsiveness while time-series studies underestimate it somewhat. For LDCs, a tentative range of 0.4 to 0.5 seems plausible. Hence, the distributive effects of the terms of trade are likely to be more significant than the allocative effects. Asian evidence shows that only a third of the inter-country differences in fertilizer use can be attributed to fertilizer price policies. Provided new technologies and infrastructure are in place, fertilizer subsidies can help in technology diffusion and in overcoming credit constraints. The choice between price supports and input subsidies will depend on a variety of country- or situation-specific factors. Nevertheless, a significant general factor favoring price supports is that they can more easily be coupled with price stabilization goals than input subsidies. Though sparse, the available evidence on the response of marketed surplus suggests that price policy is not a reliable instrument for regulating inter-sectoral trade.     

Farmland Preservation Verdicts—Rezoning Agricultural Land in British Columbia

The Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) in British Columbia (BC), Canada, is a provincial zoning scheme designed to protect agricultural land from development. Since 1973, landowners have not been permitted to use ALR land for nonagricultural purposes, prompting some to seek recovery of development option value by applying for exclusion from the ALR. Using Geographic Information System (GIS) technology and a binary choice (logit) model, this study examines factors that impact the acceptance of ALR exclusion applications. With data from two regions in southwestern BC, we find that applications are more likely to be approved when the land is closer to the major highway, has a smaller parcel size, consists of a smaller portion of the total parcel area, or has poorer quality soils. Therefore, as intended by public policy, agricultural capability is a key determinant in exclusion decisions, retaining properties of greater agricultural value in the ALR. Even though public opinion has suggested otherwise, the political party in power at the time of the decision was only a weak factor, mostly moderated by the number of applications in a given year. A spatial‐effects model found no evidence of spatial autocorrelation, supporting the conclusions drawn from the nonspatial model estimations. La réserve de terres agricoles de la Colombie‐Britannique (ALR), au Canada, est un plan de zonage provincial destinéà protéger les terres agricoles contre le développement urbain. Depuis 1973, les propriétaires fonciers ne peuvent utiliser les terres de la réserve à des fins non agricoles, ce qui incite certains à tenter de récupérer une certaine valeur d’option en faisant une demande d’exclusion. À l’aide de la technologie des systèmes d’information géographique (SIG) et d’un modèle de choix binaire (type logit), nous avons examiné les facteurs qui influencent l’acceptation des demandes d’exclusion. À l’aide de données sur deux régions du sud‐ouest de la Colombie‐Britannique, nous avons observé que les demandes d’exclusion sont plus susceptibles d’être acceptées lorsque les terres sont situées en bordure d’une route importante, sont de petite taille, ne représentent qu’une portion d’une superficie plus grande ou présentent des sols de mauvaise qualité. En conséquence, comme le prévoit la politique du gouvernement, la capacité agricole est un facteur clé dans les décisions d’exclusion qui permet de conserver les propriétés de grande valeur agricole dans la réserve. Bien que l’opinion publique indique le contraire, le parti politique au pouvoir au moment de la décision ne constituait qu’un faible facteur, principalement réduit par le nombre de demandes au cours d’une année donnée. Un modèle d’effets spatiaux n’a pas réussi à montrer l’existence d’une autocorrélation spatiale appuyant les conclusions tirées des estimations du modèle non spatial.     

Tracing the Effects of Agricultural Commodity Prices and Food Costs

We estimate a system of product and input-demand equations for food-processing industries to trace the links among farm commodity prices, food-processing costs, and food prices. Disembodied technical change, which likely reflects increasing consumer demand for convenience and product variety, has sharply reduced agricultural materials demand relative to most other food-processing inputs. This implies weakening impacts of farm price shocks on food prices. But improving quality and falling relative prices for agricultural inputs, in combination with increasing factor substitution, has counteracted these forces to encourage greater usage of agricultural inputs in food processing, and limit these trends.