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.
Les petits producteurs, les villes et le lait : défis du ravitaillement alimentaire dans les Andes du nord de l'Equateur
Cette these dechiffre les defis rencontres par les petits producteurs dans l'approvisionnement alimentaire urbain dans les Andes du Nord en Equateur, avec une etude de la structure et du fonctionnement du systeme d'approvisionnement urbain en produits laitiers a l'echelle nationale. Les strategies de production et de commercialisation des petits producteurs sont observees au niveau local a travers deux exemples: Machachi et Nono. Le systeme d'approvisionnement est analyse comme un reseau spatial ou les zones de production, les points de vente et de consommation sont interconnectes, ceci generant des dynamiques dialectiques de transformation mutuelle il travers les interactions des differents acteurs. Historiquement, le systeme s'est structure en fonction des besoins et des caracteristiques des producteurs de moyenne et grande taille. Cependant, au cours des dernieres decennies, les petits producteurs sont devenus des acteurs essentiels grâce a des strategies entre les villes et la campagne. L'incorporation des petits producteurs dans cette dynamique montre leur grande capacite d'adaptation face aux opportunites generees par un marche en pleine croissance. Malgre tout, leur interaction avec les autres acteurs denote une inegalite dans les relations de pouvoir qui reste encore peu modifiee. D'autres modalites d'integration des petits producteurs restent a construire.
D'une application pratique des indices bio-météorologiques
Abstract The purpose of the author is to determine statistically in what part of Switzerland maize could be cultivated with certain chance of rentability. The author gives first the method he used for determining the biometeorological index of four species of maize which were selected by the Swiss agronomical research stations. He has considered two possibilities for the growing period: ( a ) raising-ripening (l'approche globale); ( b ) raising-flowering, flowering-ripening (l'approche fractionee). From the biometeorological index, he calculated retrospectively the ripening time of these four species in the years 1901–1965. Assuming a priori that maize should be harvested before October 15th at the latest, he calculated, for a number of meteorological stations, the relative number of years when such conditions were fulfilled. Dividing the country in regions of similar mesoclimates and sorting these stations per region, it is possible to average the maximum altitude where maize can ripen at least 7, 8, 9 and 10 times within 10 years. Finally, taking into account the exposure and ground slope, he draws maps of the theoretically possible extension area, which maps are more reliable and detailed than the ones derived from actual means.