Gary W. Williams

Testing Restrictions on a Model of Japanese Meat Demand

Analysis the tests for quasi-separability, net and perfect substitutability developed and implemented on a demand system model of the Japanese meat sector. Net complimentarity between chicken and dairy beef and chicken and pork; Japanese Wagyu beef as a separate commodity to both imported beef and dairy beef; Importance of fish in the Japanese meat demand system.

Commodity checkoff programs as alternative producer investment opportunities: The case of soybeans

Evaluations of commodity checkoff programs generally involve benefit-costs analyses. The typical benefit-cost approach, however, provides no clear criteria for judging whether program benefits exceeds the costs sufficiently to warrant continuation of the program. This article proposes a method for evaluating a commodity checkoff program as an alternative investment opportunity facing producers which allows a ranking of the program among investment alternatives facing producers. The procedure is demonstrated through an analysis of the soybean checkoff promotion program. The analysis clearly indicates that the soybean checkoff program has performed well as an investment alternative for soybean farmers and warrants consideration for continuation. In contrast, a benefit-cost analysis of the soybean checkoff program yields ambiguous results regarding both the magnitude of the producer benefit and whether the benefit is sufficiently large relative to cost to justify continuation of the program. lEcon-Lit citations: Q130, M300, M370r

Returns to US soybean export market development

The Foreign Agricultural Service and the American Soybean Association cooperate in one of the oldest and largest foreign market development programs. Over the years, soybean promotional efforts have had a modest yet significant effect on the United States soybean industry. Other sectors of US agriculture have benefited indirectly. Promotion has had positive impacts on both prices and exports with relatively high returns per dollar invested. A recent shift in emphasis from the promotion of soybeans to the promotion of soybean products has led to even greater revenues per dollar spent.

Brazilian Soybean Policy: The International Effects of Intervention

This paper examines the effects of the complex set of Brazilian soybean sector policies on the world soybean and products market. Brazilian policy makers have intended to encourage domestic crushing of soybeans and exports of processed rather than raw soybeans. Removal of the Brazilian policy set for the period 1960–78 is simulated with an econometric model of the world soybean market. The results indicate that the intervention objectives were not achieved. Moreover, the U.S. soybean industry has benefited from the policies.

Returns to Soybean Producers from Investments in Promotion and Research

U.S. soybean producers have been cooperatively investing in both production research and demand promotion for nearly four decades to enhance the profitability and international competitiveness of their industry. Have producers benefitted from their contributions to soybean checkoff program activities over the years? How has the return to investments in soybean production research compared to that of soybean demand promotion investments? The overall positive returns to producers over the study period resulted primarily from promotion activities. Production research contributed negatively to overall producer returns from soybean checkoff investments.

Analysis of Marketing Margins in the U.S. Lamb Industry

Factors affecting marketing margins were identified and assessed using a relative price spread technique. Margins were disaggregated into slaughter-to-wholesale and wholesale-to-retail for a more complete understanding. Marketing costs, concentration, demand, and price were used to explain variations within these margins. Results showed that packer concentration had a significant effect on margins. Forces of supply and demand (as represented by production and market price) and changes in marketing costs also explained the variation in margins. A higher degree of price transmission from slaughter-to-wholesale level was observed in comparison to the wholesale-to-retail level.

EXAMINING PACKER CHOICE OF SLAUGHTER CATTLE PROCURMENT AND PRICING METHODS

Using daily fed cattle purchase transaction records collected by the Packers and Stockyards Programs over the period April 1992 to April 1993, we identify characteristics associated with the choices of fed cattle procurement and pricing methods. The methodology involves the use of a multinomial logit model. Regional concentration; processing capacity; number of head per lot; average weight per head; cattle type; yield grade, quarterly grade, seasonality, and distance from packing plants play a significant role in determining the methods of procurement and pricing chosen by packers. The method chosen by packers to procure fed cattle also affects the choice of a given pricing method.

Meat export marketing: Lessons from successful exporters

Exporting high-valued products in general, and meat and meat products in particular, has not been a marketing alternative explored by many purveyors of such products, A series of interviews with executives of successful meat exporting firms was conducted to determine alternative successful strategies and methods of exporting meat and meat products. This article compiles their responses and provides a step-by-step summary of the meat export process from the decision to export to the actual mechanics of exporting.

Generic Advertising of U.S. Lamb

ABSTRACT Generic advertising of U.S. lamb by the U.S. sheep and lamb industry is an effort to reverse an almost continual decline in the industry since World War II. This analysis explores the answers to three related questions: (1) What have been the effects of the generic lamb advertising on U.S. and foreign sheep, lamb, and wool markets? (2) Has the generic lamb advertising program effectively increased the consumption of domestically produced lamb as intended rather than imported lamb? (3) What have been the returns to U.S. sheep producers, feeders, and packers who pay for the advertising? Using a 70-equation, non-spatial, price equilibrium, simultaneous econometric simulation model of the world sheep, lamb, and wool markets, the analysis concludes that the U.S. lamb industry’s generic lamb advertising program has positively impacted their markets, enhanced profitability of the industry, and increased the industry’s share of domestic lamb consumption.

U.S. National Economic Contribution of Generic Food and Agricultural Product Advertising

ABSTRACT Agricultural promotion groups (APGs) promote the economic welfare of agricultural producers by financing generic advertising and promotion activities intended to expand demand for their commodities in hopes that the benefits will more than cover the cost. A review of the most recent evaluations of 27 major U.S. APG generic advertising and promotion programs conducted by many different researchers using widely different techniques concludes that that those programs have effectively enhanced the profits of their respective stakeholders and generated high rates of returns to the dollars invested in those programs. Importantly, this study finds that the success of those programs in supporting and growing their respective sectors of agriculture has spilled over to the general economy. The programs have created an important multiplier effect through the economy. In the process, jobs have been created; income has been generated; and economic growth has occurred.