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Australian
Agribusiness Review
Volume 11 - 2003
ISSN
1442-6951
Paper 1
January 9, 2003
Quality
Assurance Certification and Implementation: Growers' Costs and
Perceived Benefits
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Ross
Kingwell -Senior Adviser, WA
Department of Agriculture and Visiting senior lecturer, University of
Western Australia
Abstract
This study reports findings from
a mail survey of Western Australian broadacre farmers participating in
quality assurance (QA) accreditation.
A 50 percent response rate generated a sample size of 78 usable
replies. The average farm in the survey spent $13,470 gaining QA
accreditation, upgrading facilities and implementing the QA system.
Most of these costs were set-up costs incurred in the first year
of QA training. Almost half
of all farmers in the survey considered QA accreditation and
implementation to be value for money. A further 39 per cent were unsure
of its value. Only 13 per
cent of respondents felt it was not a worthwhile investment.
Most respondents agreed that there were benefits, apart from
price premia, in applying a QA system and 84 per cent of growers viewed
QA accreditation as the start of greater regulation of grain production.
Even if no price premium was available for QA grain, 39% of respondents
indicated they still believed QA to be worthwhile.
However, this same group of farmers also indicated that if the
premium for QA grain was less than $8.90 per tonne they would begin to
question the value of implementing the QA system on their farm.
Overall, farmers in the survey suggested an average premium of
$12.30 per tonne was required to prevent them questioning the merits of
QA.
A simple investment model suggested that to exactly offset the cost of
QA accreditation and implementation a price premium of $11.70 per tonne
was required. This premium
was very close the price premium of $12.30 per tonne identified by
growers as being required before they would doubt the worth of adopting
a QA system.
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Paper 2
February 12, 2003
An analysis of the growth of the Australian dairy
and meat processing sectors
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Nilufar
Jahan - Senior Research Officer of ABARE, Canberra,
Perry Smith and Gill Rodriguez - Senior
Economists, ABARE, Canberra
Abstract
The
dairy and meat processing sectors are significant contributors to the Australian
economy. It generates employment and export earnings. For example, processed
dairy and meat products accounted for 35 per cent of total food exports in 2000.
Hence, the growth of the dairy and meat processing sectors is an important issue
for Australia.
The
dairy and meat processing sectors grew annually by 1.47 and 0.37 per cent
respectively from 1980 to 1998. A third of the growth in the dairy processing
sector arose from productivity gains.
Research expenditures, programs such as work
place reforms and changes in the exchange rate significantly influenced the
productivity changes in the dairy and meat processing sectors.
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Paper 3
May 26, 2003
Changed Payment System for Wheat Grades:
Consequences for Farming Systems in the Central West of NSW
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Dean Patton -
NSW Agriculture, Agricultural Research Station, Trangie, NSW
and John P. Brennan - NSW Agriculture, Wagga Wagga Agricultural
Institute, Wagga Wagga, NSW
Abstract
The new AWB Ltd payment system for wheat grades has changed
the incentives for farmers to grow and market wheat varieties in Australia.
Based around standard quality characteristics, the payment system provides
incremental premiums and discounts for deviations in protein and screenings
around this standard. The aim of this paper is to compare the optimal
crop-pasture rotation using the previous cliff-face pricing structure with the
new premiums and discounts pricing structure. The optimal rotations are analysed
by applying a linear programming model of farming systems in the Central West of
NSW (PRISM Condobolin). To assess the robustness of our results, optimal
rotations are also compared for a range of cereal and oilseed prices. It was
found that the new pricing structure favours increased cereal production by
reducing the relative economic importance of beneficial rotation crops,
particularly canola. This is an important finding, given the need to develop and
promote more ecologically sustainable farming systems that are not dominated by
cereal production.
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Paper 4
June 5, 2003
Modelling
the effects of a temporary loss of export markets in case of a foot and
mouth disease outbreak in Australia - Preliminary results on costs to
Australian beef producers and consumers
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Liangyue Cao, Nico Klijn and Trish Gleeson, Australian
Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics, GPO Box 1563, Canberra ACT
2601, Australia
Abstract
The size of the cost to the Australian beef industry of
a potential loss of major beef export markets following an outbreak of
foot and mouth disease (FMD) in Australia is important in determining
appropriate precautions. The size of this cost is evaluated with a dynamic
bioeconomic model of Australian beef production, consumption and export
trade. The model developed by ABARE represents forward-looking competitive
behavior of beef producers and traders on domestic and export markets
based on perfect foresight. The model enables estimation of the cost due
to a FMD outbreak under various scenarios regarding the duration of market
closure and affected zones.
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Paper 5
June 12, 2003
The Role of Contracts in Wine
Grape Supply Coordination: An Overview
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Iain
Fraser,
Department of Economics and Finance,
La Trobe University, Vic 3086 and
Department of Agricultural Science
Imperial College, Wye, UK
Abstract
In this paper the role of contracts in coordinating the supply of grapes
between independent wine grape growers and wineries is examined. A review
of technical issues that underpin the design and implementation of
contracts provides insights into the wine industry. A review of the
economics literature on contractual relations in the wine industry
indicates that although grape contracts are important they are subject to
a number of problems. In particular, the precise determination of grape
quality is a source of tension, as are current pricing arrangements.
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Paper 6
July 10, 2003
Australia
Fresh fruits and vegetables: Why do so many of them remain unbranded?
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Dr. David Pearson. Lecturer,
School of Marketing and Management, University of New England, Armidale,
NSW 2351 dpearson@une.edu.au
Abstract
Most fresh fruits and vegetables
are unbranded. However,
buyers are assisted with brands when purchasing most other grocery
products.
Brands have the potential to be of value to buyers and to the
organisations that own them. However,
research has shown that brands are only valuable to buyers when the
attribute being sought fluctuates and is hidden from them at the time of
purchase. Such as tastes with
respect to apples. On this basis, for example, brands are relevant for
apples, oranges, rockmelons and grapes, but not for potatoes, onions or
mushrooms. However, it may not
even be possible to develop successful brands with products for which they
are relevant. This is due to the difficulty of reducing fluctuations in the
attributes sought and hence being able to present a consistent product to
the buyer as well as the difficulty of the organisation investing in the
brand receiving some benefit. Thus,
many fresh fruit and vegetable products are likely to remain unbranded.
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Paper 7
July 18, 2003
Alternate
Modes of Irrigation and Farmer Returns Under Conjunctive Water Management
in Pakistan
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Waqar A. Jehangir -
Senior Agricultural Economist, International Water Management
Institute, Lahore, Pakistan w.jehangir@cgiar.org Muhammad Ashfaq - Assistant
Professor, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan
and Evan Christen Irrigation
and Drainage Engineer, CSIRO (Land and Water) Griffith, NSW, Australia
Abstract
The
paper describes a study of canal and supplemental ground water used by 544
farmers for wheat growing in the Rechna Doab catchment of Pakistan. The main
objective was to assess the on-farm financial gains through alternate modes of
irrigation and comparing them with conjunctive water use. For econometric
analysis, a linear relationship between the wheat production and different
determinant variables was assumed.
The
results highlighted the problem of increased use of tubewell water in the saline
groundwater zones that had resulted in the deterioration of the groundwater
quality and led to the problem of permanent upconing of saline groundwater.
Conjunctive water management increased the farm income by about Rs. 1000 and
5000 per hectare compared to only using the canal and tubewell water,
respectively The results of
financial analysis show that the net gains were 30 percent higher on the farms
using conjunctive water management as compared to the farms using only tubewell
irrigation.
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Paper 8
July 22, 2003
Those
Most Likely: Identifying Food Processing Firms With Export Potential
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Dr
Norman E. Philp, Associate Professor in International Business, Charles Sturt University.
Albury, NSW, nphilp@csu.edu.au
Abstract
This paper suggests an
instrument that can be used by export advisors and other export
development practitioners to determine whether or not food and beverage
processing firms that have not yet actively exported have, in fact, a high
probability of ever doing so. The instrument is developed from an
empirically based, logistic regression model relating to the management
and firm-specific determinants of a firm's export orientation. This model
was able to predict the probability of a firm being an “active
exporter” with an accuracy of over 84%. The major management attitudes
and attributes that appeared to strongly influence whether or not a firm
became an active exporter were its management's willingness to commit
resources to export development, their attitudinal commitment to export,
their recognition of the significance of product price in the firm’s
market competitiveness, the firm’s access to export-specific management
skills, and whether or not the manager was tertiary educated. Four
of these constructs were then used to develop the suggested instrument.
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Paper 9
September 05, 2003
The
Impact of China’s WTO Accession on its Regional Economies
Tingsong Jiang, Asia-Pacific
School of Economics and Management, The Australian National University, Canberra
0200 tingsong.jiang@anu.edu.au
and Centre for International Economics, GPO Box 2203, Canberra 2601 tjiang@thecie.com.au
Abstract
Along with the rapid economic
growth since China undertook economic reform in 1978, the income gap among
Chinese regions has widened. Using CERD,
a computable general equilibrium model of the Chinese economy with regional
details, this paper investigates the impact of China’s accession to the World
Trade Organisation on regional development and finds that, although all regions
will gain from the accession, the trend of a widening gap among regions will be
reinforced rather than eased. Specifically, the eastern coastal region gains
more than the inland regions. The result is robust no matter
whether the change in trade balance is left free or fixed, although the scenario
with zero change in the trade balance generates a lower overall welfare gain and
an even worse regional disparity. A retreat from WTO commitments
in tariff cuts in agriculture reduces welfare gains, but could to some degree
ameliorate the worsening inequality between rural and urban households and
between coastal and inland regions. Similarly, increasing transfer
payment to the inland regions could marginally improve the regional and
rural-urban inequality at the cost of overall welfare gain. On the other hand, domestic
market reform allowing more freely movement of factors and commodities across
regions could improve the regional and rural-urban inequality and achieve higher
total welfare gains.
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