Price determination and discovery in a ‘de-regulated’ milk market: perspectives on the price of UK milk
Abstract The de-regulation of the UK milk market, in November 1994, saw the end of sixty years of monopoly control by the Milk Marketing Boards, yet milk prices are currently higher than at any time in the history of the MMB. This paper examines the factors which are likely to determine the price of UK milk in the longer term, both at the aggregate market level and for specific transactions. In the future, all milk users in the UK will have an incentive to increase their capacity utilization and add value to raw milk, to justify a higher milk price. The option of importing liquid milk from the continent will become increasingly attractive as cross-channel links improve and transfer costs fall. The price-fixing mechanism adopted by Milk Marque has resulted in a short-term increase in UK milk prices. In the long run, prices will fluctuate within a band, with intervention prices for butter and skimmed milk powder determining the floor and the cost of transfering milk from the continent determining the ceiling.
Preferences for Attributes of Industrial Potatoes: An Empirical Investigation of the Swiss Market
Managing the transition from a commodity to a differentiated good in an increasingly liberalized, price-driven world is a challenge for Swiss producers of potatoes. To facilitate this process at the production level, knowledge about preferences in terms of product attributes is needed. We evaluate processor preferences regarding potato product attributes such as price and country of origin. Attributes are selected according to their influence on the buying decision of the processors. Additionally, we quantify the relative importance of product attributes for the main market segments chips, fries, and flakes. By applying a discreet-choice experiment with Bayesian estimation of individual part-worth utilities and randomized first-choice models for scenario analysis, we find that color, size and producer price determine 46 % of the buying decision. However, while price is an important decision criterion, product and supplier criteria can be used to segment the market if the price premium is held within limits and size and color requirements are met.ResumenEl manejo de la transición de un producto básico a un bien diferenciado en un mundo liberalizado en aumento, orientado hacia precios, es un reto para los productores Suizos de papa. Para facilitar este proceso a nivel de producción, es necesario el conocimiento acerca de las preferencias en términos de los atributos del producto. Evaluamos preferencias de procesamiento relacionadas a los atributos del producto papa, tales como precio y país de origen. Los atributos se seleccionan de acuerdo con su influencia en la decisión de compra de los procesadores. Adicionalmente, cuantificamos la importancia relativa de los atributos del producto para los principales segmentos del mercado, papas fritas, a la francesa y hojuelas. Mediante la aplicación de un experimento de selección a discreción, con estimación Bayesiana de utilidades de partes individuales valiosas y de modelos al azar de primera selección para análisis del escenario, encontramos que el color, tamaño y precio del productor, determinan el 46 % de la decisión de compra. No obstante, mientras que el precio es un criterio importante de decisión, los criterios del producto y de su proveedor pueden usarse para segmentar el mercado si se mantiene el precio de cotización dentro de los límites y se cubren los requerimientos de tamaño y color.
Investigations on the rôle of organic matter in plant nutrition
1. As the result of decomposition of green manure in a swamp soil, the coarse fractions (including coarse and fine sand) of the surface layer (first 3 inches) decreased by 11·2 per cent. while the fine ones (silt+clay) increased by 9·8 per cent. in the course of 43 days. The effect was less pronounced in the manured soil maintained at 60 per cent. saturation, while no alteration was to be noticed in the case of the unmanured specimens. 2. Treatment with dilute hydrochloric acid prior to dispersion had no appreciable effect on the estimates of mechanical composition obtained in the different cases. Loss in solution was also comparatively small. 3. The silica-sesquioxide ratio increased slightly as the result of decomposition of green manure in swamp soil. The composition of the fine fractions was also altered, the total percentages of the oxides of iron, aluminium and silicon increasing from 90·5 to 99·3 in the course of 71 days. 4. The practical significance of the above and related observations has been discussed.