chapter 3 marketing environment price
TRANSCRIPT
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Chapter 2
Agribusiness marketing environment
Introduction
Successful marketing requires that managers know how markets work. This is important for
several reasons. First, supply and demand have a great deal to do with market size and
product prices, both of which should be of interest to an agribusiness manager. Second, a
successful marketing program requires that marketing managers understand how consumers
make their buying decisions and how they respond to changes in price and other factors.
Third, long term profits require that the product seller has a correct picture of costs, and how
prices of inputs to the production process and products purchased for resale are decided.
Fourth, success in the marketplace requires that managers be able to see the market setting
that their firm faces and alter their decision making accordingly.
Understanding Consumer demand
Profit equation: setting an acceptable price has a great deal to do with consumer happiness
and company profit. The lower the price, the more consumers are likely to buy and consume.
The price of inputs or materials needed to make products is also of great interest to producers.
The lower the prices paid for inputs and the higher the price paid for the final product, the
larger the firms profits.
Profit = total revenue total cost
Or symbolically
= TR TC
Profit is the difference between price paid (total revenue) and cost of product (total cost). The
objective of the firm is to make the difference between TR and TC as large as possible by
raising TR, lowering TC, or doing both.
Total revenue: another important part of any firms profit potential is total revenue. It is
simply calculated by multiplying the price received per unit sold by the total number of units
sold (quantity).
Total revenue (TR) = price per unit (Py) X quantity sold (Y)
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Or symbolically
TR = Py X Y
It is important for firm managers to remember the main goal of the firm is to increase long-
term profits, not just increase the quantity of products sold. For firms that use a production or
selling approach to the market, the corporate goal becomes increased sales. Profits are
supposed to take care of themselves. Unfortunately, they rarely do. If the selling price is too
low or costs are too high, increased sales could result in a large loss. A good part of the
success in trying to increase profits comes from knowing the relationships between total
revenue and levels of price and quantity.
Table 2.1: demand schedule
Price $ Quantity = Total revenue($)
5.00 10 50
4.50 20 90
4.00 30 120
3.50 40 140
3.00 50 150
2.75 55 151.25
2.50 60 150
2.00 70 1401.50 80 120
1.00 90 90
(plot a graph)
A close look shows that as price and quantity move in opposite directions, the level of total
revenue does not remain the same.
One of the major concerns of marketers is the effect on total revenue when a products price
is changed. As price goes down, the quantity demanded goes up, showing that the law of
demand works. At first, TR increases as expected, but after a while it reaches a maximum
price of $2.75 and a quantity of 55 units sold.
Consumer demand
In a free market economy where the customer is king, the customer directs what is
produced by what he or she purchases. From the study of consumer behaviour, it has been
discovered that consumers always seek the highest level of total happiness from the
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collection of goods they consume. When choosing each additional good to consume, they
always pick the one that gives them the greatest addition to the overall total level of
happiness. This means individual consumers select the goods that give them the greatest total
satisfaction.
The second guideline is that the amount of satisfaction received from consuming each
additional unit of a product decreases as more is consumed. If satisfaction did not decline
with increased consumption, people would consume enormous amounts of single products
that gave them the greatest happiness to the exclusion of everything else. Decreasing
satisfaction for individual products makes consumers demand a wide selection or variety of
products to increase their total satisfaction.
Role of price
Consumers by showing a willingness to pay a certain price for an item, show that they are
getting at least as much satisfaction from the consumption of a good as they could get from
the consumption of another good available at the same price. If the price is lowered, more
consumers will feel this way, and the quantity demanded will go up. Producers operate in
much the same way. They have a limited amount of money to invest to produce items
demanded by consumers. By paying a certain price for an input, producers show that it isworth at least that much to them in the production process. How much producers are willing
to pay for the input really depends on how much they think the consumers are willing to pay
for their products. In this way, the producers demand for inputs, or materials, depends on the
consumers demand for the firms products.
The demand for tractors, feed, dairy cows, processing plants, e.t.c. comes in part from the
consumer demand for retail food items. For example, the demand by farmers for fertilizer, in
part, comes indirectly from the consumers demand for chicken. The producers want to
enlarge their flocks to meet the demand for chicken. Larger flock sizes lead to greater
demand for chicken feed, which leads to a greater demand for corn, and finally the fertilizer
to grow it. Thus, the chicken grower, the corn farmer, the chicken processor, and the fertilizer
producer are all linked together in the agribusiness system.
At each step along the way it is price that helps each of the firms to make its decision, and
price that quickly communicates any changes in the agribusiness system.
Factors that Influence Demand
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There are seven factors that influence the level of consumer demand. They include the
following:
1. Own price: the lower the price, the greater the quantity.
2. Price of substitute: increasing the price of a good will lead to increased demand of
its substitute
3. Price of complement: a rise in the price of a complementary good discourages the
consumption of the good in question.
4. Income: the level of consumer income changes the level of consumer demand. For
most goods, there is a direct connection, or relationship between income and demand.
5. Population: changes in population can change the level of product demand. More
people in a market create a greater demand for a good at every price.
6. Taste and preference: consumer demand rarely stays constant. Consumer tastes and
preferences are always changing. If the long term use of a product is decreasing, it
may no longer fit the need of consumers; a marketer needs to know this to change the
marketing mix or even switch to the production of a different product.
7. Seasonality: consumer demand is influenced by the time of the year. A marketer
must know the seasonal patterns of consumption for a product to schedule the
production and plan marketing activities.
Demand Shifters
Another area of consumer demand is the difference between a change in the quantity
demanded by consumers and a shift in consumer demand. If a change in the own
price of an item brings a change in the number of units sold, then there has been a
change in quantity demanded.
However, if price remain the same and the quantity sold changes, this means a shift in
demand.
Price Quantity 1 Quantity 2
5.00 10 20
4.50 20 30
4.00 30 40
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3.50 40 50
3.00 50 60
2.75 55 65
2.50 60 70
2.00 70 80
1.50 80 901.00 90 100
The factors that cause this movement of the demand schedule are called demand shifters.
They include the following:
1. Price of substitute goods
2. Price of complements
3. Income
4. Population
5. Taste and preference
6. Seasonality.
Changes in any of these conditions can lead consumers to demand more or less of a product
even though the price does not change. These shifts can have a powerful impact on the long-
run level of producer sale and profit so one needs to pay attention so as not to be caught off
guard.
Understanding Agribusiness Supply
Production Process
Production is the use of inputs to create an output that has economic value. The production
process is how an agribusiness combines the various inputs to create an output. Agribusiness
uses materials, equipments, buildings, people and a variety of other things to produce the
goods and services they sell to others. Managers are responsible for using these items in a
profitable manner in the production process.
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Inputs to the production process include items such as grain, animals, chemicals, labour and
anything else that an agribusiness uses to make an output.
Output from the production process can be a commodity such as feeds, fertilizer, milk and so
on. It can also be a food product such as ice cream hamburger, e.t.c. services such as
financial planning, insurance, and market price news are also considered inputs.
Production Decision
When agribusinesses decide to produce an output they must make four major production
decisions:
1. What to produce? What products and services can this business profitably offer?
2. How to produce? What is the best combination of inputs to use in producing the
output?
3. How much to produce? What is the correct amount of output to produce that will
increase the firms long term profits?
4. When to produce? What is the correct time to produce the output or to offer the
service?
Answers to these four production decisions rests heavily on the demand for the product or
output. The answers are also changed by the costs of the inputs.
Being a successful manager means having a production process that is both technologically
and economically efficient. A process is technologically efficient when the maximum or
highest output per unit is obtained at all levels of input use. This must be done first. Once this
efficiency is reached the manager can turn his or her attention to reaching economic
efficiency. A process is economically efficient when the level of output reaches the highest
profit. This is determined by the cost to produce the product (input cost) and the selling price
of that product (output). The managers primary goal is to increase the long-term profits of
the firm; therefore, he or she must be interested in both efficiencies.
Production Function
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The heart of the production process is the production function. The production
function sums up the output possible from various levels of inputs. For example, it
might describe the amount of grain output possible from various levels of fertilizer
use. A representative production function is shown below. The amount of ice cream
production possible using various amounts of labour is shown by the line labelled
total product(TP). The more technically efficient the plant is the greater production at
each level of labour use (TP2). The less technically efficient plant produces a lower
amount at each level of labour (TP2)
Tp3
TP2 Greater technical efficiency
TP1 less technical efficiency
output
Input
Total Product Curve
The shape of the curve shows the level of output possible as more and more inputs (workers)
are added to the production process. From the curve, output rises rapidly with the addition of
the first few workers. Beyond point A, output continue to go up, but at a smaller or lower rate
than in the beginning until output reaches a maximum, or its highest point, point C, then falls.
The drop happens because at some point. Adding more workers causes the efficiency to go
down. The extra workers get in the way of the others. We could draw curves for each of the
other inputs used in the production of ice cream and show similar results.
C
TP
B
Rational
production
A Range
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140
120
100
80
60
40
20
The total product curve tells the level of output possible from various levels of input. It gives
useful information about:
1. The level of contribution each additional unit of input makes to output.
2. How efficiently each added unit of input is used in the production process.
Other inputs are held constant.
Measurement of cost
A useful way to look at cost of production is to separate the costs according to whether they
occur as a result of:
1. The passage of time
2. Undertaking of production
Fixed cost comes with the passage of time and do not change with the level of output. Fixed
costs usually include such items as insurance, property taxes, rent, or mortgage payments.
These costs must be paid regardless of output, even if nothing is produced. Variable costs
usually include materials, shipping, packaging, and so on. The level of these costs change
with output.
Determination of Economic Efficiency.
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It is important to know that maximum profit does not happen at the point where input
efficiency is highest or where the highest output occurs. Maximum profit is measured by the
cost of inputs compared with the revenue earned by selling outputs.
Revenue
Output(s) @ $10/unit
Number of
labourers
Labour cost@
$ 200
Profit(s)
0 0 1 0 0
30 300 1 200 100
100 1000 2 400 600
168 1680 3 600 1080
220 2200 4 800 1400
240 2400 5 1000 1400
252 2520 6 1200 1320
245 2450 7 1400 1050
The highest or maximum output from dairy plant happened when six workers were
employed. Output sales gave revenue of $2.50, but the plant had a profit of only $1,320.
When only four workers were employed the plant had revenues of $2,200, and profit of
$1,400. Without looking closely at costs and revenues, the plant manager might have
assumed the plant was making maximum profit where output was greatest. Only by looking
at the numbers was she able to determine the economic efficiency of the production process.
Law of Supply
In trying to achieve maximum profit, the agribusiness manager has to keep one eye on the
cost of production and the other eye on the price received for output. Although both factors
could change dramatically, usually the managers greatest worry is selling price. What the
manager does not want to happen is to produce a large quantity of a product only to have the
selling price drop. This could wipe out any profits the manager might have been counting on.
If the selling price looks like it will be too low to make a profit, the manager will simply not
make the product. This is the idea that underlies the law of supply.
Table 2.3 shows the relationship between selling price and quantity supplied.
Price Quantity supplied
$5.00 1000
$4.50 900$4.00 800
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$3.50 700
$3.00 600
$2.50 500
$2.00 400
$1.50 300
$1.00 200$ 0.50 100
(plot in a graph)
At a price of $0.50 per unit only 100units are offered for sale by the suppliers. Only the
lowest cost producers can make profit. It is very likely that at this price no one can make a
profit. They remain in the market only to keep their products before consumers with the hope
that prices will soon rise.
As selling price increases each seller is willing to offer a greater quantity of the product for
sale, and more sellers enter the market. At even higher prices each producer can make a nice
profit and is willing to offer a larger quantity for sale. This relationship between price and the
quantity supplied by sellers is called a supply schedule.
Price is not the only factor that will affect supply. The non price determinants of supply are:
1. Changes in the price of other goods: for example, if a diary plant manufactures both
cottage cheese and ice cream. Imagine what happens when the price of ice cream goes
up and the price of cottage cheese stays the same. the manager will reduce production
of cottage cheese and produce more ice cream.
2. Expectations of future selling price: if prices are expected to rise, sellers will produce
and offer more quantities for sale and vice versa.
3. Number of sellers in the market: if there is only one seller of a product say doughnut
in the neighbourhood, who produces 500 doughnuts at $0.50 per doughnut,. If anotherseller comes on board and also produces 500 doughnut at $.50 per day. There will be
a rightward shift of the supply curve because there are twice as many doughnuts for
sale at the original price.
4. Changes in production costs: increase in the cost of production will result in less
profit for the seller if the selling price does not change. Suppliers will not be as eager
to offer product for sale in this situation.
Price Determination and Price Discovery
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Until now, when we talked about supply and demand curves, price was always known with
certainty. Changes in price caused the quantity demanded or the quantity supplied to change
along the supply or demand schedule. When price was held constant, and the factors that
influence demand and supply changed, the demand and supply curves shifted. Now at the
same price, more or less quantity would be demanded or supplied depending on the change.
One may think from the discussion that price is set by someone, it is not. Price is determined
by the interaction of supply and demand. When a supply curve for a product is shown in the
same graph as the demand curve for that same product, price is determined where the two
curves cross. This is calledprice determination
price P S
D
quantity Q
An important point to note is that where the curves cross supply and demand is in balance,
the quantity supplied by the marketers of the product just equals the quantity demanded by
the consumers of the product. There is neither a surplus of product in the market, nor is there
a shortage.
In the real world, a supply-and-demand curve does not exist, they are estimated. Any attempt
to determine price by these methods will not truly reflect what is going on in the marketplace.
That brings us toprice discovery.
Sellers and buyers constantly haggle over price. It is a negotiation process where neither
party has complete information about supply, demand, or the factors which affect either one.
The process of negotiating a price is not exact. Whether the agreed-on price is above or
below the general price level for similar transactions in other parts of the country depends on
the following:
Amount, quality and timeliness of the information available to both parties.
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Bargaining ability of each participant.
One can see that information plays an important role in being successful in the price
discovery process. The price discovery process usually works very well, meaning there are
few transactions at prices very much above or below the current market price. Some people
are better at bargaining over price than other people. They can negotiate a little higher selling
price or a little lower buying price because of their skill.
It is important that marketers know and understand the difference between price
determination and discovery. Both are important because price sets both the size of the
market and the amount of profit possible. Price determination helps researchers understand
the long-term effects of changes in the marketplace, and price discovery helps agribusiness
managers set prices for day-to day operations.
Law of one price
The law of one price state that when markets are operating normally, there should be only
one common price for each product in a market, after adjusting for the cost of storage,
transportation, and processing.
If prices differ by more than the cost of storage, transportation, and processing, then price isout of line. When this happens, there is an economic incentive to shift from an area of low
prices to another area where prices are being paid. The process of capturing extra profits in
settings where prices are out of line is called arbitrage
Time: in markets separated by time, the difference between the current price and an expected
market price sometime in the future must be equal to the cost of storage for that period. For
example, the price of wheat at harvest time should be lower than the price of wheat six
months later by the cost of six months storage.
Place: in markets separated by distance, the difference in price between the two locations
must be equal to the cost of transporting the product between the two points.
Form: in markets separated by differences in product form, the difference between the prices
paid for the raw commodity and the price received for the processed product must be equal to
the cost of processing.
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In this way, the law of one price keeps markets in balance that are separated by time,
distance, and form. There is a natural tendency for markets to move toward the balance
defined by the law of one price. If markets are walking correctly, whatever differences exist
will be small so that resources are always being used correctly and prices only differ by the
cost of storage, transportation and processing.
Markets Environments
Markets are the heart and soul of a capitalist economy and varying degrees of competition
lead to different market structures, with differing implications for the outcomes of the market
place. Several characteristics of a market environment determine its structure. Each of these
characteristics is briefly discussed below:
Number of firms in the market: this forms an important basis of classifying market
structure. The number of firms in an industry determines the extent of competition in
the industry.
Control over product prices: the extent to which an individual exercises control over
the price of the product it sells is another important characteristic of market structure.
Types of the product sold in the market: the extent to which products of different
firms in the industry can be differentiated is also a characteristic that is used in
classifying market structures.
Barriers to new firms entering the market: the difficulty or extent to which new firms
can enter the market for a product is also a characteristic of market structures
Existence of non-price competition: market structures differ to the extent that firms in
industry compete with others on the basis of non-price factors, such as difference in
product characteristics and advertising.
Four types of ideal market settings or situations have been established and they are
1. Perfect competition
2. Monopoly
3. Monopolistic competition
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4. Oligopoly
Perfect Competition
When economists refer to perfect competition, they are particularly referring to the
impersonal nature of this market structure. The impersonality of the market is due to the
existence of a large number of suppliers of the products- there are so many suppliers in the
agribusiness industry that no firm views another supplier as a competitor. Thus the
competition under perfect competition is perfect.
This ideal setting requires that certain conditions be met. The three conditions that are
necessary before a market structure is considered perfectly competitive are:
i. Homogeneity of the produce sold
ii. Existence of many small buyers and sellers
iii. Perfect mobility of resources or factors of production.
First, the product must be similar, or homogenous. This means that the product produced by
each producer is exactly like that produced by all other producers. Agricultural commodities
are good examples of similar products. For example, yellow corn from a farm in Harare is the
same as that from a farm in Hwange.
Second, there must be many small firms in the market. No single firms actions can influence
prices if they are all small in size. This means that prices are set solely by market supply and
market demand. The individual firms must take the market price as their selling price and
have no power to set their own price.
The third condition, perfect mobility of resources requires that all factors of production can
be readily switched from one user to another. The implication is that resources move to the
most profitable industry. It should be easy to enter and leave the production process. This
means that if prices get high enough to be attractive it should be fairly easy to become a
producer. It means also that if prices get low it should be easy to stop being a producer.
Production agriculture has long been used as an example of perfect competition. However,
with the changes that have occurred in production agriculture in the last two decades, this is
no longer a good example.
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Firms in a perfect competition are price takers. They do not compete against one another.
They compete against the market. They can produce and sell all they want at the price the
market gives them. They have no control over price. There are no excess profits to capture,
which means firms can only make enough money to cover costs.
Consumers are not much better off. They get a plain vanilla product. All firms products
are just the same. There are no product differences to fit individual consumer needs or tastes.
The reason perfect competition is held up as the ideal market setting is that it does result in
economic efficiency. Resources are allocated properly, business firms do not make excess
profits and consumers pay the lowest possible price. As a result, society as a whole is made
better off. However, individual business people and consumers are likely to be happy
Monopoly
Monopoly can be considered the opposite of perfect competition. It is a market form in which
there is only one seller. Monopolies can be very rare if not impossible in the agricultural/
agribusiness market. There are many factors that give rise to a monopoly. A monopoly can
exist in an industry because a patent was obtained for a product by its inventor. A monopoly
can also arise if a company owns the entire supply of a necessary material needed to produce
a product. A monopoly can be created by a government agency when it sells a marketfranchise for a particular product or service. Finally a monopoly can arise due to declining
cost of production for a particular product leading to case of natural monopoly.
For the producer, monopoly seems to offer the best of all worlds. In this market setting, a
single large producer provides the entire product that the market needs. There is only one
firm and that firm makes up the entire industry. It can set either market price or market output
because it has total control over supply.
While some under good market circumstances might prefer this market environment,
consumers and society do not. The presence of a monopoly means less output is available at
higher prices than would be the case in a perfectly competitive market setting. This is the
reason society seeks to prevent monopolies.
Monopolistic Competition
Monopolistic competition is characterized by the existence of many sellers. Usually, if an
industry has 50 or more firms producing products that are close substitutes of each other , it is
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said to have a large number of firms. in monopolistic competition, the firms are about the
same size.
The most distinguishing characteristics of monopolistic competition is the fact that the firm
have highly differentiated products, this means that consumers believe there are significant
differences between the products offered for sale by different firms. It is in fact, immaterial
whether these products are actually different or simply perceived to be so. So long as
consumers treat them as different products they satisfy one of the characteristics of
monopolistic competition. In many agribusiness markets, producers practice product
differentiation by altering the physical composition, using special packaging, or simply
claiming to have superior products based on brand images and/ or advertising.
In addition to the above requirements, relative ease of entry into the industry is considered
another important requirement of a monopolistically competitive market organisation.
Examples of monopolistic competitions are: fast food stores and many food retailers and
manufacturers.
Overall consumer happiness may be better served this way, because monopolistic
competition results in a wide variety of products available to consumers. If a differentiated
product is to capture extra profits over the long term, then the product must truly be different
enough to prevent other producers from duplicating the difference. If not, competitors will
quickly copy the product, and the extra profit will soon be bid away. Fierce competition
among firms keeps prices and profits relatively low and this is very good for consumers.
Oligopolistic Competition
The key features of oligopoly are
Only a few large firms present in the industry.
A firms actions influence the level of production and prices within the market.
Each firm is aware of other firms and take their reactions into account.
Competition is through product differentiation, heavily promoted to buyers.
There are oligopoly characteristics in the markets for most agricultural inputs e.g. fertilizer,seeds, e.t.c. and few food processors and manufacturers e.g. soft drink manufacturers.
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An important characteristic of an oligopolistic market structure is the interdependence of
firms in the industry. The interdependence, actual or perceived, arises from the small number
of firms in the industry. Thus, an oligopolistic firm always considers the reactions of its rivals
in formulating its pricing or output decisions. Because there are only a few firms in this type
of industry, they can watch their competitors closely and probably react to any market
strategy their competitors choose to pursue.
Producers in an oligopolistic market face an unusual market setting. there is little reason to
compete on the basis of price in this market setting because a firm cannot win. A price
increase will result in a loss of sales and lower profits. A price decrease will cause
competitors to lower their prices also. Sales of each firm will remain the same, but selling
prices will be lower and so will profit.
Understanding of Agribusiness Markets
The markets of agricultural commodities and food products are often very different from
those of other consumer products.
Physical Characteristics
The first step is to look at the physical characteristics. Most agricultural commodities are:
1. Bulky
2. Low in value per unit of weight
3. Perishable
4. Produced in areas distant from consumers
5. Fixed supply in short time.
This means that commodity handlers must seek the most efficient means to process and move
the products to distant consumers quickly. Perishability is a constant problem for firms in
agribusiness. There is an old saying about this problem. in agribusiness, you sell it or you
smell it". The fixed supply means agribusiness firms can be hurt by large, unexpected price
changes.
Characteristics of Agricultural Supply
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The biological nature of the production process gives producers little control over how much
is produced once the process is under way. Overall production during the crop or marketing
year is largely set by such uncontrollable factors as weather and disease.
For commodities such as grains, unless imported, the supply is fixed between harvests
regardless of price. Once the crop is planted, quantity supplied will not change much in
response to price changes. But small changes in supply will cause very large changes in price.
Characteristics of Agricultural Demand
Unlike supply, domestic demand for agricultural commodities is usually stable from year to
year. There may be seasonal changes for a product from year to year, but overall demand
remains the same. This is because consumer demands for food are largely a function of habit.
The lower limit on food demand is hunger. If you are really hungry you will pay a lot of
money to get food. At the upper limit of food demand, your stomach holds a certain amount
of food. No matter how low food prices go, you can eat only so much food before you fell
uncomfortable. For most of us, the difference in the amount of food that leaves us feeling
hungry or full is small. For this reason, food demand is relatively stable and not very sensitive
to rice changes.
A closer look at food demand leads to several interesting facts. First, the demand for specific
food products tends to e price sensitive. This means a change in price will cause the quantity
sold to change. The availability of substitutes causes this response.
Second, the demand is less sensitive to price the closer one gets to the farm level because
there are few substitutes for farm-produced commodities.
Agricultural Price Patterns
The prices of many agricultural commodities show patterns over time. These patterns relate
to the biological nature of food production and slight variations in consumption. Those
patterns that happen yearly are called seasonal price patterns. Patterns that repeat longer than
a year are called price cycles. Seasonal price patterns are caused by the seasonality of
production and consumer demand. For grains, fruits and vegetables there is usually only a
single crop year, while demand is constant throughout the year. This difference in supply and
demand produces the pattern of prices throughout the year.
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A graph of monthly prices would show price is lowest at harvest time, followed by a slow
rise each month afterward. The price is highest just before the next harvest. The increase in
price each month after harvest is the markets method of rewarding someone who stores part
of the annual crop to meet year round demand.
Price cycles go beyond one year. They also have their origin in the biological nature of
production, as do seasonal patterns. In these cases the biology does not permit a rapid
adjustment in supply adjustment patterns. A full cycle of rise and fall for hogs may take 3.5
to 4 years, while for cattle it may take as long as 11 to 12 years.
Knowing where you are in the price cycle is critical to planning./ producers do not wish to
expand output at the peak of the price cycle knowing they might face a pattern of falling
prices for years. But they might consider expanding if they were at the bottom or on an
upward swing of the price cycle.