Ellen Goddard

The Demand for Canadian Fats and Oils: A Case Study of Advertising Effectiveness

The fats and oils market in Canada is characterized by generic (butter) and brand (margarine, shortening, vegetable oils) advertising. In this study the economic interrelationships in the consumption of fats and oils are examined and the effectiveness of the advertising programs is evaluated. The two-stage demand model used is made up of a single equation determining Canadian aggregate expenditure on fats and oils and an expenditure share system derived from a translog indirect utility function for each of four products; butter, margarine, shortening, and vegetable oils. The demand for individual fats and oils is significantly affected by lagged advertising expenditure levels, habit persistence and a time trend, as well as the traditional variables of price and expenditure.

Optimal investment in generic advertising and research: The case of the Canadian supply-managed egg market

Cooperative producer organizations face the choice of investing producer dollars in a number of ways including basic research and advertising. An empirical model is specified for the Canadian supply-managed egg market to determine whether producers should invest in research, advertising, or both. Results suggest that without financial restrictions producers should invest more in advertising than they currently do and also invest significantly in basic research. For any commodity, the results will be dependent on price elasticities of supply and demand as well as measured responses to advertising and research.

Associations between single nucleotide polymorphisms in 33 candidate genes and meat quality traits in commercial pigs

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in candidate genes for meat quality using a custom 96-SNP panel (Illumina Vera Code GoldenGate Assay) on 15 traits collected from 400 commercial pigs. Meat quality measurements included muscle pH, color (L*, a* and b*), drip loss, cooking loss, peak shear force and six sensory traits including appearance (outside and inside), tenderness, juiciness, flavor and overall liking as well as carcass weight and probe yield. Thirty-five SNPs with minor allele frequencies > 0.10 remained for the multimarker association using the GLM procedure of sas 9.2. Results showed that 20 SNPs were significantly associated with at least one of the traits with either additive or dominance or both effects (P < 0.05). Among these significant SNPs, five of them in ADIPOQ, FTO, TNF, LEPR and AMPD1 had an effect on more than three traits simultaneously; those in MC4R, CAST, DGAT1 and MYF6 had an effect on two traits, while the others were associated with one trait. The results suggest that these markers could be incorporated into commercial pigs for marker-assisted selection and breeding programs for carcass and meat quality trait improvement.

Traceability -- A Literature Review

In light of recent food safety crises and international trade concerns associated with food or animal associated diseases, traceability has once again become important in the minds of public policymakers, business decision makers, consumers and special interest groups. This study reviews studies on traceability, government regulation and consumer behaviour, provide case studies of current traceability systems and a rough breakdown of various costs and benefits of traceability. This report aims to identify gaps that may currently exist in the literature on traceability in the domestic beef supply chain, as well as provide possible directions for future research into said issue. Three main conclusions can be drawn from this study. First, there is a lack of a common definition of traceability. Hence identifying similarities and differences across studies becomes difficult if not impossible. To this end, this study adopts CFIA’s definition of traceability. This definition has been adopted by numerous other agencies including the EU’s official definition of traceability however it may or may not be acceptable from the perspective of major Canadian beef and cattle trade partners. Second, the studies reviewed in this report address one or more of five key objectives; the impact of changing consumer behaviour on market participants, suppliers incentive to adopt or participate in traceability, impact of regulatory changes, supplier response to crisis and technical description of traceability systems. Drawing from the insights from the consumer studies, it seems as if consumers do not value traceability per se, traceability is a means for consumers to receive validation of another production or process attribute that they are interested in. Moreover, supply chain improvement, food safety control and accessing foreign market segments are strong incentives for primary producers and processors to participate in programs with traceability features. However the objectives addressed by the studies reviewed in this paper are not necessarily the objectives that are of most immediate relevance to decision makers about appropriate traceability standards to recommend, require, subsidize etc. In many cases the research objectives of previous work have been extremely narrow creating a body of literature that is incomplete in certain key areas. Third, case studies of existing traceability systems in Australia, the UK, Scotland, Brazil and Uruguay indicate that the pattern of development varies widely across sectors and regions. In summary, a traceability system by itself cannot provide value-added for all participants in the industry; it is merely a protocol for documenting and sharing information. Value is added to participants in the marketing chain through traceability in the form of reduced transactions costs in the case of a food safety incident and through the ability to shift liability. To ensure consumer benefit and have premiums returned to primary producers the type of information that consumers value is an important issue for future research. A successful program that peaks consumer interest and can enhance their eating experience can generate economic benefits to all sectors in the beef industry. International market access will increasingly require traceability in the marketing system in order to satisfy trade restrictions in the case of animal diseases and country of origin labelling, to name only a few examples. Designing appropriate traceability protocols industry wide is therefore becoming very important.

Consumer Attitudes, Willingness to Pay and Revealed Preferences for Different Egg Production Attributes: Analysis of Canadian Egg Consumers

The Canadian egg industry has introduced a number of specialty eggs, including Omega-3, organic, free run/range, vitamin enhanced and vegetarian over the past few decades. These eggs are generally sold at prices higher than the ‘normal’ egg and there has been little analysis of the consumer awareness of and interest in purchasing these eggs. All previous econometric analysis of the Canadian egg market has assumed eggs and consumers are homogeneous. This study makes use of Stated preference and Revealed preference data to model the consumer interest in the different egg types. Stated preference surveys were conducted in two separate years: 2005 during which consumers were surveyed on their interest in Omega-3 and Vitamin Enhanced eggs relative to ‘normal’ eggs, white large, Grade A eggs, and 2006 during which consumers were surveyed on their interest in organic, freerun and vegetarian eggs relative to brown Grade-A eggs. Consumers were also assessed on their health behaviour, health consciousness, and in 2006 on their attitudes towards animal welfare, novelty foods, and environmental concerns. Results from this phase of the research suggested that among the sample of Alberta consumers, there is only modest interest in the specialty eggs, eggs, in general, are associated with other healthy behaviours, health conscious consumers are willing to pay more for specialty eggs, of all types, older consumers and consumers with families are significantly more price sensitive and hence, have constraints on their ability to purchase specialty eggs. As well, consumers with concerns about animal welfare will pay more for free run eggs, there is an increased interest in eggs with identified health attributes among older consumers. Revealed preference analysis of actual purchase behaviour was conducted on an A C Nielsen Homescan© panel data set over a three year period. Separate analyses were conducted for Alberta and Ontario frequent egg purchasers, with some significant differences across provinces. In Alberta no one is willing to pay more for specialty eggs than for normal eggs, with either modeling technique applied. In Ontario this assessment is less clear, the frequency model of how often across a three year period households purchased each type of egg, would suggest that consumers are willing to pay more for specialty eggs than for ‘normal’ eggs, with organic the egg that they are willing to pay the most for. At the same time the choice model for Ontario, a model of actual purchases across time with the type of egg as the dependent variable, suggests that consumers are willing to pay the most for ‘normal’ eggs with Free run and Organic close behind. Overall, as we look more closely at the relative ranking of specialty eggs, at the mean of all variables, organic eggs are the ones all households are willing to pay the most for. In the frequency model Alberta consumers’s willingness to pay for organic eggs is closest to the normal egg and Ontario consumers would pay

Tracking Change: Traditional Knowledge and Monitoring of Wildlife Health in Northern Canada

1.72 relative to normal eggs. The choice model exhibits similar patterns. Free run eggs are also popular in Ontario, but less so than organic. One of the findings of the study is that there may be some misunderstanding of the relative nutritional benefits of the different types of eggs or other human health aspects of agricultural production. Health seems to be an issue in the purchase of organic eggs as much as it does in the purchase of Omega-3 eggs. Further specific research on the reasons why consumers purchase organic would allow the industry to develop better marketing tools.

Canadian Chicken Industry: Consumer Preferences, Industry Structure and Producer Benefits from Investment in Research and Advertising

Traditional Knowledge (TK) is increasingly valued in long-term monitoring of wildlife health, particularly in northern Canada where Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) may represent a threat to valued caribou and moose populations. This article presents comparative research results (1998–2002 and 2010) about caribou and moose health based on research with Łutsël K’é First Nation, Northwest Territories (Canada). Elders’ knowledge, harvester observations, harvest data and consumption data indicate a decline in the availability of barren ground caribou and range shifts of both caribou and moose during the study period. An anomalous sighting of a white tailed deer near the community, coupled with moderate community concerns about CWD would suggest the need for greater monitoring of wildlife health. As resources for scientific monitoring become limited, the article suggests how northern Indigenous communities can use their own knowledge (TK) to monitor changes in arctic ecosystems.

Capital structure, firm size, and efficiency: the case of farm petroleum and animal feed co-operatives in Canada

The Canadian chicken industry has operated under supply management since the mid-1970s. Canadian consumer preferences for chicken have grown dramatically since then possibly in response to concerns about health and the levels of fat and cholesterol in red meats. However Canadian consumers are also looking for convenience with their food purchases. Canadians are buying their chicken in frozen further processed forms, fresh by cut without skin and bone and in a variety of other different ways reflecting their unique willingness to pay for various attributes. There is also an increasing trend for retailers and processors to brand the fresh chicken product sold through grocery stores (for example, Maple Leaf Prime). The preferences Canadian consumer have for various chicken products, the prices they are comfortable paying and the strategies followed by processors/retailers can directly affect the outcomes of industry wide strategies such as investment in generic advertising and research or the impact of international market changes such as border closures. This research is an initial attempt to quantify Canadian consumer preferences – for fresh product by type – for product by level of processing – for chicken product by cut - for fresh chicken by brand - to examine the impact of substitutability on a variety of market shocks. The various different disaggregations of Canadian chicken consumption are used in a number of simulation models to illustrate how important preferences are to producer returns when there are market shocks. If Canadians found all chicken products available in the grocery store to be perfectly substitutable then previous policy analysis assuming chicken is one homogeneous product would be sufficient for industry policy analysis purposes. If Canadians view all the different chicken products as imperfectly substitutable and given that various chicken products are produced in relatively fixed proportions (white and dark meat, for example) further understanding of how consumers make their purchase decisions could enhance the industries ability to predict outcomes. For example, border closing to Canadian exports ( as a result of an Avian influenza outbreak, for example) would result in a significant increase in the dark meat products available for sale through Canadian grocery stores. The results presented in this research could provide a clue as to how much dark meat prices might decline while white meat prices might remain unaffected. The results reported suggest that at the consumer level, chicken fresh and frozen products are not perceived to be perfect substitutes, within a narrow category such as fresh chicken breasts, they are not perceived as even close substitutes, within the fresh category branded products such as those developed by Lilydale and Maple Leaf are not perceived as perfect substitutes. As well, an initial look at the demand for individual chicken products by household suggests that there is far from a common buying pattern across Canadian households, even within a single province. The results also suggest that health and convenience attributes are driving Canadian consumer preferences. Simulation results highlight the fact that pricing strategies followed by major processors/retailers within Canada can influence the returns to generic advertising and research. Further research could provide additional robust estimates of the chicken product substitutability existing in the Canadian market and an increased understanding of the market characteristics currently operating. The results presented here suggest that further work in this area is important for the chicken industry to pursue.

United States Demand for Coffee Imports

This paper examines the cost structure and cost efficiency for an unbalanced sample of 42 animal feed and 115 farm petroleum co‐operatives in Canada over the period 1984‐2001 using heterogeneous technology stochastic frontier models. The parameter estimates of the cost frontier and the resulting cost efficiency scores indicate there are statistically and economically significant cost inefficiencies. Further analysis revealed that financial structure and firm size have likely contributed to variations in cost efficiency. Obtaining sufficient equity capital is expected to improve co‐operative efficiency

Consumers' Understanding and Concerns About Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE): Comparison Among Canadian, American, and Japanese Consumers

The United States - one of the worlds largest coffee importers - imports coffee beans from a variety of different countries. These countries are aggregated into five groups representing five broadly defined types of coffee. Imports of the five coffees over time are examined to determine price, expenditure and substitution elasticities. These elasticities reflect preferences as well a technical relationships in the form of blending recipes. The lower the degree of substitutability between the different types of coffee, the more inelastic the demand from the United States facing groups of exporting countries. The results suggest rigidities in United States imports of coffee of different types. These rigidities are evidenced by substantial complementarity among the five coffee types. Preference patterns are very similar across a wide range of model specifications. There are differences in expenditure elasticities for different types of coffee in the United States.