THE ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE REGULATED MARKETING SYSTEM IN BRITISH COLUMBIA

This report is the second part of a three part review of regulated marketing in British Columbia undertaken by the British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries (BCMAFF). The focus of this report is the implications of the economic environment for the objectives, policies and regulations of the regulated marketing system. The regulated marketing system in British Columbia includes both supply managed and non-supply managed commodities. The supply managed commodities include chicken, eggs, turkey, milk/dairy and hatching eggs. The non-supply managed commodities include hogs, cranberries, mushrooms and vegetables (which includes greenhouse vegetables). The report is organized as follows: Section 1 describes the basic problem that is at the core of this study, the resulting research problem, the objectives and the methodology of the study. Section 2 contains the historical context of regulated marketing, and Section 3 discusses the current economic environment. Section 4 addresses the relevancy of the historical objectives of regulated marketing and the implications for the regulations.