Agroindustry Location Under Output Price Uncertainty

Although the location theory of industry has received much attention in the literature, Hsu (1997) has demonstrated that the theory developed to date is not applicable to an agroindustry, that is, the industry of processing the agricultural product. Recognizing that the complete analysis of Hsu (1997) has been conducted in a deterministic world, and that in an economy subject to spatial friction, market information about prices is often incomplete and costly, the firm, accordingly, faces many types of uncertainty in making its location decision. This paper attempts to develop systematically the theory of plant location for an agroindustrial firm under output price uncertainty. Our analysis shows that the presence of output price uncertainty has significant influence on an agroindustrial firm's location decision. Most pointedly, a risk-averse agroindustrial firm's choice of production location under output price uncertainty always differs from the one under certainty. It also demonstrates that in many respects, the implication of output price uncertainty for an agroindustrial firm is in sharp contrast to its non-agroindustrial counterpart