School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences - Theses
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ItemThe competitiveness of Australian cotton in Japan( 2003)The Australian cotton industry is one of the fastest growing and the most profitable agricultural sectors in Australia. Internationally, Australia produces one of the highest quality cotton in the world and is the world's third largest exporter. However, despite the increasingly strong role of cotton in the Australian economy, and Australia's high ranking among exporting countries, Australia is not a major player in the market. Australia is currently facing a number of serious problems, most of which result from heavy government assistance to cotton producers and the application of trade barriers on textiles and clothing imports in other major producing and consuming countries. The effects of these policies may have an enormous impact on world trade balance through price variation and hence, place huge pressures on non-subsidising countries, like Australia. Therefore, until trade barriers are reformed, Australia must focus on solutions that lead to an increase in its competitiveness. As such, the most important strategy for Australia is to successfully compete with the US and other major cotton suppliers in Australia's traditional cotton markets, such as Japan. The aim of this study is to analyse the competitiveness of Australian cotton in the Japanese market. The techniques needed to undertake this task include the Structural Vector of Auto Regression (SVAR) model, the Weak Separability test, the Structural Almost Ideal Demand System (SAIDS) model. The results reveal that Australia's market share increases when the Japanese textile market develops, rather than when it is in decline. However, when comparing Australia's competitiveness with the US (its largest competitor), it is shown that during a down-turn of the Japanese market, Australia would be more competitive if its prices are kept lower than that of the US. It was also found that Australian cotton is a strong substitute of US cotton. While this obviously is an advantage of Australian cotton, it stresses the importance of the need for Australia to keep a price competitive position to that o f t he U S, if these advantages are to be exploited. It was concluded t hat higher production efficiency and proper marketing strategy are the main elements the Australian cotton industry needs to maintain and expand its market share in the Japanese cotton market.
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ItemAdvertising and Australian pig producers welfare( 2000)The pig meat market in Australia is characterized by generic (fresh pork, bacon etc.) advertising. These advertising expenditures are funded from collective levies from pig producers. At the same time, there are extensive brand advertising activities in the pig meat market. Whether or not there has been an impact of advertising on pig meat consumption has been a long-standing argument. Moreover, producers are concerned about the levies they have paid. So far, there have been several studies done on the effectiveness of generic pig meat advertising in Australia and pig producers welfare. However, the previous studies only looked at generic advertising and didn't account for other media information such as brand advertising and fast food advertising effects on meat consumption. As well, the previous studies are contradictory about the historical effects of generic pig meat advertising. In this study, a simultaneous model that links the production and marketing of pig meat is established to estimate the relationship between advertising, consumption of pig meat and welfare of pig producers for the period of 1985 - 1997. The model consists of a two-stage demand system derived from a translog indirect utility function for five meats: beef, lamb, chicken, pork and bacon and ham, a single supply equation and a single demand equation for pigs, a pig meat trade equation and a retail farm price linkage equation. The simultaneous results show that current advertising on pork is more effective than the current advertising on bacon & ham. In terms of the Australian pig industry's marketing strategies, the study suggests that more money should be invested m pork advertising, but less money should be invested in bacon & ham advertising.
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ItemThe competitiveness of the southern hemisphere onion industries in the northern hemisphere window markets( 1996)In recent years there has been considerable concern expressed by participants in Australian horticultural industries, and by government, with the future direction of horticulture in this country and the ability of these industries to effectively compete m the international market place. Explanations for international trade and competitiveness which exist in a wide and very diverse array of literature have shown an evolution of thought from the theory of `comparative advantage' and resource based economics to modern and neo-classical streams of thought from which four features have emerged, namely, technology and innovation, product differentiation, economies of scale, and competitive pressure. One of the most influential explanations of modern trade and competitiveness is by Porter and his theory on the competitive advantage of nations (1990). Where most of the existing studies of the competitiveness of horticultural industries in Australia are generalised and lack the formality of true economic testing, Porter's model provides a thorough and capable economic framework with which to consider more carefully, the competitiveness of a horticultural industry, in this case, the onion industry in Australia and in its competing nations. Thus, the aim of this thesis is to determine the relative competitive positions of the Tasmanian and New Zealand onion industries, and that of their lesser competitors, Chile and South Africa, in the `window' onion export markets that exist in many northern hemisphere countries. This thesis represents the performance of these industries and serves to indicate their positions of competitiveness relative to one another. Porter's model is utilised as a framework of analysis to discover how and why the Tasmanian and New Zealand industries achieve advantages in competition over their rivals, and over one another. Essentially, the superior performance and states of competitiveness of the Tasman onion industries compared to their competitors is owing to their more developed and dynamic diamond structures from which advantages in competition emanate more freely and usually in a more sophisticated and, hence sustainable form. By contrast, the difference in performance of the Tasmanian and New Zealand onion industries is significantly explained by the existence of contrasting endowments of basic factor resources such as arable land. The competitive positions of the Tasman onion industries have depended in the last few years upon these less sophisticated forms of advantage, which in the long-run are fleeting and essentially unsustainable. The application of Porter's model to the situations of these competing onion industries in this thesis also serves as a valuable test of the explanatory power and validity of Porter's explanation of competitive advantage in agricultural and resource based industries. This thesis illustrates that Porter's theoretical framework in explaining competitiveness in this particular industry is very suitable. Ins hoped that through the study of the Tasman onion industries and their characteristics which afford them competitive advantages, valuable insight of the action and development of dynamic diamond structures which ably promote competitiveness will be gained for related horticultural industries.
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