Issues in Modelling the Australian Dairy Industry: Joint Products, Market Power and Deregulation

This paper reports on an expanded and revised version of the spatial equilibrium model of the Australian dairy industry developed by MacAulay (1997). In the expanded version there is demand for five manufactured products. The transformation from bulk milk to final product is modelled by considering milk and dairy products in terms of their primary components, milk fat and protein. For market milk, a variable element was added to the margin to replicate the effects of market power in the processor to retail chain. Some implications for the deregulation of the Australian dairy industry are noted.