Chapter 20 Marketing and distribution: Theory and statistical measurement

Agricultural marketing and distribution are broad areas that cover a wide assortment of pricing and market structure issues for agricultural commodities and processed food products. A synthesizing framework is developed in order to discuss the relevant Handbook chapters and an assortment of additional marketing topics. The first two sections of this chapter deal with traditional marketing topics: price forecasts, pricing models that emphasize form, spatial and intertemporal features of a market, and tests of pricing efficiency. A third section is devoted to the rapidly growing area of food-market industrialization, including various aspects of information, the changing role of the consumer, and contracting issues. The last section presents a series of discussions on political and institutional constraints in international commodity marketing such as state trading enterprises, export subsidy programs, case studies of trade disputes, and an analysis of the multinational enterprise.