The Relevant Markets for Meat Production and Processing in the Czech Republic: Analysis of the Price Movements

The objective of this article is to apply empirical methods to delineate the relevant market for various types of meat in the Czech Republic during the period of 2006–2010. This procedure may be useful when there is little availability of micro-data and the complete SSNIP test approach is not feasible, but when the prices can be obtained at an aggregated level. The methods employed ranged from the visual assessment, simple correlation analysis and testing of the law of one price, to the more complex cointegration analysis and testing of Granger causality. The application of the methodology is used both for the geographical delineation and for the product delineation. We reach the following conclusions: For the chicken meat, the market in the Czech Republic can be considered independent both geographically and by product. For the pork meat, the relevant market includes, apart from the Czech Republic, also Germany and Slovakia. The relevant beef meat market includes the Czech Republic and Germany.