Information Exchange and Strategic Behavior in Supply Chains: Application to the Food Sector

Information technology (IT) facilitates information exchange between retailers and suppliers. Based on evidence from food industry, information strategies under uncertainty are analyzed, using game theory. Some key results are under certain conditions, retailers withhold valuable sales data from suppliers even if this means less supply coordination; a revealed equilibrium exists where suppliers learn retailers' market data despite retailers' withholding of such data; this leads either to full information convergence or, surprisingly, incomplete information convergence with some informational asymmetry left; retailers with greater market power and numerous suppliers are more inclined to share, rather than to withhold, information.     

WTO Disciplines on Domestic Support and Market Access in Agri‐Food Supply Chains

Multilateral negotiations on agriculture in the WTO are making very little progress as developed economies are reluctant to bind trade‐distorting domestic support and import tariffs at levels acceptable to developing countries. This paper presents the basic Bagwell–Staiger framework as it relates to agricultural trade negotiations. In its basic version, market access commitments are sufficient to achieve efficient trade agreements. We show that vertical linkages between agricultural goods and processed food commodities may prevent countries to reach an efficient trade agreement. We argue that the features of agricultural supply chains hinder the argument that total discretion over domestic policies is appropriate. Les négociations multilatérales de l'OMC sur l'agriculture progressent très lentement étant donné que les pays développés hésitent à maintenir un soutien interne qui fausse les échanges et des barrières tarifaires à des niveaux acceptables pour les pays en développement. Le présent article traite du modèle Bagwell–Staiger dans le contexte des négociations sur le commerce des produits agricoles. Dans sa version de base, les engagements quant à l'accès au marché sont suffisants pour permettre des échanges commerciaux efficaces. Nous montrons que les liens verticaux entre les produits agricoles et les produits alimentaires transformés peuvent empêcher les pays d'atteindre un accord commercial efficace. Nous soutenons que les caractéristiques des chaînes d'approvisionnement agricole entravent l'argument voulant que l'entière discrétion quant aux politiques intérieures soit appropriée.     

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 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…     

Incorporation and Resistance: Analytical Issues in the Conventionalization Debate and Alternative Food Chains

This article examines arguments about the relationship between mainstream agriculture and alternative food chains. It begins with a summary of Guthman's study of organic agriculture in California and her conclusion that it has come to resemble conventional, industrial agriculture in its agrarian structures and its supply chains. The article raises questions about both the evidence that smaller alternative producers have been squeezed out, and the assumptions underlying the analysis of relations between capitalist and non-capitalist forms. The issues are contextualized through a summary of earlier debates about the fate of non-capitalist producers in the 'development' process, and through reference to studies in economic anthropology, including research on household farming strategies in Italy. The article concludes that alternative food chains do not follow a simple linear trajectory, and that we need to include an ethnographic approach to understand both their economic values and political objectives.     

安全食品供给的契约分析

本文应用交易成本经济学等理论从交易成本、风险和不确定性以及消费者需求与企业质量声誉角度分析了安全食品供给中纵向契约协作的必要性。建立了一个简化的两阶段食品质量安全契约模型 ,分析了食品产业质量安全契约中影响契约的设计、选择和执行的因素 ,从而为安全食品供给的食品产业纵向契约协作提供了一个理论分析框架。     

中国粮食供需平衡分析

1980年以来，中国的粮食生产获得了快速发展，达到了粮食供需的基本平衡。但随着农业政策的变化，粮食生产出现了三次较大的波动，特别是2000—2003年间，粮食总产量连年快速下降，供需缺口加大。在粮食价格较大幅度上涨和国家政策支持下，2004年又开始进入新一轮的粮食总产量增长时期。中国未来粮食的总需求量是刚性的，到2020年大概需要近6亿吨原粮，而国内生产量则是变量。在有利于粮食持续增产的政策引导下，国内粮食产量的增长可以做到供需基本平衡。但从总体上看，中国今后基本上是粮食净进口格局，而且对中国经济发展有利。如果适当增加小麦和玉米的进口量，逐步使粮食自给率达到，90％左右的水平，可以减少中国增产粮食的边际成本，同时又不会影响中国粮食的数量安全。     

Research in the Canadian Food Marketing Supply Chain System Post-1986

Economists have taken over the world. That's been a very negative factor because we have gone completely out of balance. I would hope that another trend, one that is broader, more humanistic and open to human beings rather than simply interested in maximizing shareholder value, will redress the balance. (Mintzberg 2002)     

农产品供应链的组织模式与食品安全

本文以农产品供应链为研究对象,在对湖北、广东、浙江和山东等地的多种供应链组织模式进行调研的基础上,比较分析了各种组织模式的影响因素及其对食品安全的作用,认为供应链的一体化程度越高其提供产品的质量安全水平越高,进而提出了我国食品安全管理的有益建议.     

地质信息产权与共享问题研究

地质信息共享问题已成为实现地矿工作信息化的关键,建立现代地质信息产权制度是实现地质信息共享的有效途径与方法.根据地矿工作的特点与需求,探讨了以现代地质信息产权制度为基础的地质信息共享保障体系,体现地质信息产权所有者利益的共享框架模式以及主题式点源数据库技术、地质信息元数据技术、WebGIS技术、OpenGIS与互操作技术等地质信息共享关键技术.