The Texas Pecan Board was established in 1998 to administer the Texas Pecan Checkoff Program and is financed through a one-half cent per pound assessment on grower pecan sales. The Board spends the assessment collections on a variety of advertising campaigns in an attempt to expand demand for...

An international wheat trade model incorporating climate variability is used to simulate different scenarios when wheat producers in the USA, Canada, and Australia adopt El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-based climate forecasts for use in production decisions. Adoption timing and rates are...

In processing industries, plant location decisions are costly and have consequences for firm profitability. When raw materials are heavy or perishable, transportation costs limit shipping distances and processors must compete locally for raw material inputs. To determine the likely profitability...

Previous climate information studies have used static models to estimate the benefits of using seasonal forecasts. Technology adoption studies, on the other hand, have used dynamic models but have examined the benefits of adoption ex post. The objective of this study is to examine ex ante the...

We use a game-theoretical framework to analyze the coexistence of spot and contract markets in the cattle industry. A duopsony scenario with two packers and N feeders is used to reflect the reality in the cattle industry. Our main contribution is to incorporate the risk components and the...

Price expectations play a critical role in commodity markets where producers must make input decisions well before output is realized. This paper brings together alternative expectations regimes, their estimation, and hypothesis tests for use in structural commodity models to determine their use...

Phytosterol is a healthful ingredient that helps reduce blood cholesterol levels. It hasbeen over ten years since the first phytosterol-enriched product, Benecol margarine, waslaunched in Finland in 1995; however, understanding of this product is still limited. Inaddition, it has been shown in the...