Economic aspects of stone fruit marketing in New Zealand

Abstract

New Zealand stone fruit constitutes a multi-million dollar industry. Possibly because the industry exports very little in either value or quantity terms little work has been completed in this industry. Little is known, quantitatively, about the market forces which operate within the industry. This study is an attempt to measure the forces operating within the New Zealand market for stone fruit.

So little is documented of the industry that it is highly desirable that chapter one of this study examine the broad outline of the sales methods available, where the product is produced and the distribution and sale post wholesale.

Chapter two then examines in detail the quantities of apricots sold through the channels available. This basic data was obtained by questionnaire and provides also a fuller insight into grower reasons for supplying their present quantities of fruit to each outlet.

Chapter three is devoted to the development of economic theory so that a demand study for stone fruit can be undertaken. This basic framework is employed in chapters IV and V where annual and daily marketing is considered.

In chapter IV an attempt will be made to predict the annual industry price and using this as a basis, future projections will be made.

In chapter V an attempt will be made to predict daily price. If daily price can be predicted, then growers should be able to develop successful marketing strategies.

Chapter VI considers these marketing strategies and how they can affect the price for his whole crop in any year at auction.

Chapter VII describes the auction system as it is at present and considers some aspects of its operation.

Chapter VIII considers the method of sale which is commonly considered by many present members of the industry to pose a threat to the livelihood of small growers and present wholesaling firms alike.

The chapter then considers the improving of the present wholesaling system and concludes with a review of what the work has achieved, making suggestions for further work.

My original brief on this study required me to study "ring buying". Ring buying is the practise of one man buying and then splitting his purchase among other buyers. Therefore all "group buyers", and commission buyers and the auctioneer practise [3] which continues today of auctioning the line once and then selling to numbers of buyers (some of whom are "group buyers") at the same price is ring buying. An analysis of buying power is presented in Table 7.1.