School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences - Theses

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    The competitiveness of Australian cotton in Japan
    Nguyen, Chi Thi Quynh ( 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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    Advertising and Australian pig producers welfare
    Zhang, Lin ( 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.