Academic literature on the topic 'Australian Citrus producers cooperative'

The Cooperative Research Centres programme was initiated in Australia in 1990 to strengthen the linkages between producers and users of research and thus ensure that research results were commercialized where appropriate. In this article, the author discusses the development of centres of expertise in Australian universities against the background of paradigm shifts in innovation, competitiveness and university-government-industry relationships. The Cooperative Research Centres programme represents the most ambitious of the various developments in recent years and he describes the selection, organization and linkages of these Centres. He analyses their impact on universities and on the research culture in Australia. Significant changes are occurring in the attitudes of researchers and traditional systems will need to be adapted to accommodate these changes. The Centres also offer opportunities for a new approach to international cooperation.

Increasingly, miners and petroleum producers are seeking rights of access to the same territory to explore for and extract their favoured resource, particularly in areas where there are commercial quantities of coal seam gas.Governments are encouraging miners and petroleum producers to maximise the extraction of their respective resources to supply the growing energy needs of Australian and international markets. These powerful drivers have led to legislation in several states including Queensland to encourage cooperative resource extraction by different parties operating in the same area.But while legislation provides an overall framework, significant issues are left to resource companies to resolve through the development of technical and commercial solutions for the joint extraction of resources with limited government involvement. Once a technical and commercial solution is agreed, a legal agreement is necessary to cement the arrangement.What legal issues need to be considered in agreements between miners and petroleum producers? Will exploration need to be addressed separately from production? How can flexibility be built into the agreement to allow for a change in circumstance? How can disputes be resolved and what role is there for courts and tribunals in disputes? Will standard boilerplate provisions be adequate for the agreement in hand?This paper seeks to answer some of these questions by highlighting the commercial and legal issues relevant to negotiations with particular reference to coordination arrangements for overlapping mining leases and petroleum leases under the Queensland coal seam gas regime.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate if the network governance structure adopted by small producers’ citrus cooperatives has allowed the reduction of risks in transactions, ex-ante (adverse selection) and ex-post (moral hazard), and the problems of opportunism downstream and upstream of the production chain. The planned methodological procedure included the structuring and research of two case studies in cooperatives of small orange producers in the interior of the state of São Paulo, Brazil, comprising a sample of 35 cooperative members surveyed between the two cooperatives analyzed. The analyzes were supported by the Transaction Cost Economics and Social Network approaches. Results indicate the importance of the cooperatives and their network format, as economic agents, in maintaining small producers in the citrus industry activity, allowing the reduction of risks in transactions and the problems of opportunism, downstream and upstream of the chain. It was verified the academic contribution and theoretical reinforcement brought by this study - through the empirical surveys and results produced - to the theory of hybrid governance formats, which lacks empirical support and greater analytical strengthening on the part of the academy, according to its own authors. It is suggested, for future analysis, the use of the network governance approach aimed at strengthening the class of small producers of other agribusiness cultures, also using the theoretical basis belonging to NIE, TCE and Networks. The continuity of analyzes based on relational governance, with institutional and transactional economics as a basis, represents not only academic documentation and support for small rural producers of different cultures, but also the guarantee of theoretical robustness to a structure that is still incipient in historical terms, which finds in Brazilian agribusiness a fertile ground for its development and materialization.

- Fruits and fresh vegetables direct selling: case from a Sicilian experience A specific producer's organization based on cooperative governance system that operates in the Province of Catania, primarily in the citrus fruit sector, has promoted in the first part of nineties a network of retailer stores, located in the northeast of Italy and directly managed by the cooperative members. This network of agricultural 118 producers has subsequently involved an increasing number of cooperatives and points of sale, structuring a policy based on a supply of citrus fruit linked with others fresh vegetables. This phenomenon is still growing, taking advantage of several new laws (the "Orientation law", the reformed Commercial law, and the 2007 State Financial Budget law) that simplify administrative and fiscal regulation on selling procedures. This law innovation process has also created new rules to make retailing activity easy and favourable (especially from the fiscal point of view) to direct selling run by the agricultural entrepreneur. This research takes in to account the economic results of this particular retailing activity, through an exploratory investigation conducted during 2005 and 2006, which underlines the added-value, generated by this specific formula used as a marketing tool. Furthermore, through this study it is possible to put in evidence, from the strategic point of view, some relevant characteristic constitutional elements and strengths or weaknesses system of this Sicilian producer's organization model. The study results show the importance of an innovative organizational and managerial model for local agriculture, and how it is possible to compete in the market and guarantee sale flows and a interesting added-value level for the producers. The evidence of the study, concerning this specific network formula, introduces two different advantages. The first one is to protect agriculture and to guarantee the sale of the annual production, when there is a large volume of production. The second one is connected to the possibility of regulating sale flows and price level thanks to the extremely elastic structure of sales points, characterised by low investments and low fixed costs. Moreover, goods supply on command at sale points, enable a "just in time" shipment, optimizing logistics and goods collection in the company. The determination of the Unit Gross income obtained by the company production direct selling, has put in evidence the great amount of operative margins of the examined distributional channel. It has to be remarked that these margins can even increase if the company production gets integrated with associated organisations that are controlling complementary goods production. In other words, the recent law which encourages these integrations enable producers to increase their gainsJEL Code: Q13Key words: direct selling, citrus, organization, supply, value-added

With an ongoing interest in developing northern Australia, we undertook a beef situation analysis to assist the Cooperative Research Centre for Developing Northern Australian in tailoring their investment decisions. The northern beef industry is dominated by rangeland enterprises that include family farms, indigenous pastoral enterprises and large corporate interests. The analysis was a whole of supply chain examination of current practices, strategies and plans. It included consultation with producers, industry groups, research organisations and government departments. The competitive advantages of the northern beef industry are its adapted production systems, low cost base and geographic positioning that allows it to take advantage of south-east Asian markets. However, the inherent low productivity, high capital costs and over reliance on a small number of markets make it vulnerable to market shocks. We found that the industry faces challenges in maintaining profitability and the ability to translate research to practice to enhance productivity its social license to operate. The review makes recommendation under four themes: There is an ongoing need for research and develop for profitability and productivity gains for the top businesses; There is a need to improve the translation of proven R and D to farm practice for the majority of the northern Australian beef industry; There is a need to support and develop business cases for economic enabling infrastructure to allow the northern Australian beef industry to remain competitive and intensify production, and; There remains some regulatory reform and derisking required to support investment in the industry and allow diversification.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze supply chain practices, and supply chain food quality performance indicator in the Australian beef processing industry. Design/methodology/approach – A conceptual model was developed to test how supply chain practices: strategic alliance, customer focus, information sharing, information quality, Lean system and antecedent cooperative behavior: trust and commitment impact on food quality. A survey questionnaire to 600 Australian beef processors was conducted to collect the empirical data for testing of the formulated hypotheses. The stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed to test the hypothesized relationships. Findings – Strategic alliance, information quality and trust and commitment are significantly related to food quality. In particular, the standardized coefficient shows that information quality has a significant positive relationship with food quality. Research limitations/implications – As Lean principles have been widely adopted in the red meat industry, strategic alliance becomes even critical for maintaining cost and operation effectiveness in the beef supply chain. A various approaches in terms of innovative technologies can improve information quality and promote information sharing in the beef supply chain. To build trust and commitment among supply chain partners requires perception of mutual long-term goals. Practical implications – Australian Meat Manufacturers face greater regulatory challenges and restraints (product labeling, food safety and carbon tax) over the next five years. Therefore, to tackle the challenges, the findings of this research have significant practical implications. Originality/value – This study intends to fill the research gap and explore how advanced supply chain systems have a potential to provide contributions to Australian beef processing industry performance. Vertical integration between livestock producers, meat processors, wholesalers and retailers provides the opportunities for greater economies of scale in production and distribution.

Wild canids (wild dogs and European red foxes) cause substantial losses to Australian livestock industries and environmental values. Both species are actively managed as pests to livestock production. Contemporaneously, the dingo proportion of the wild dog population, being considered native, is protected in areas designated for wildlife conservation. Wild dogs particularly affect sheep and goat production because of the behavioural responses of domestic sheep and goats to attack, and the flexible hunting tactics of wild dogs. Predation of calves, although less common, is now more economically important because of recent changes in commodity prices. Although sometimes affecting lambing and kidding rates, foxes cause fewer problems to livestock producers but have substantial impacts on environmental values, affecting the survival of small to medium-sized native fauna and affecting plant biodiversity by spreading weeds. Canid management in Australia relies heavily on the use of compound 1080-poisoned baits that can be applied aerially or by ground. Exclusion fencing, trapping, shooting, livestock-guarding animals and predator calling with shooting are also used. The new Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre has 40 partners representing private and public land managers, universities, and training, research and development organisations. One of the major objectives of the new IACRC is to apply a strategic approach in order to reduce the impacts of wild canids on agricultural and environmental values in Australia by 10%. In this paper, the impacts, ecology and management of wild canids in Australia are briefly reviewed and the first cooperative projects that will address IACRC objectives for improving wild dog management are outlined.

Lamb growth can be optimised with genetic selection using sire Australian sheep breeding values, however, breeding value expression has been shown to be reduced with poor nutrition. It was therefore hypothesised that the genetic potential for lamb growth would also be reduced, where production factors such as multiple births limit growth. Live weights at birth, weaning, and post-weaning were collected from more than 18,000 lambs produced over five years and eight locations of the Sheep Cooperative Research Centre Information Nucleus Flock experiment, and the impact of environment, production factors, and genotype was determined using mixed effects regression. The genetic potential for lamb growth was moderated by environment, multiple births, and sire type (p < 0.05). Twin lambs achieved 76% of the expected weight gain at weaning and 58% post-weaning. For triplet lambs weight gains were drastically less at approximately 30% of the expected gain at the same time points. Lambs born to maternal sires consistently had the poorest response to genetic selection, achieving approximately half the expected weight gain. Hence, producers need to temper expectations for growth based on genetic selection, or employ mitigation strategies such as precision feeding, the use of alternate breeds, or place emphasis on the genetic merit of other desirable traits.

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the nature of the cooperation–competition nexus in regional clusters by examining how wine firms in Australia engage in knowledge exchanges about a “common” strategic issue: climate change. Further, it determines if differences in climate change innovations exist based on sub-regional position. Design/methodology/approach – Using a survey, data were collected from 557 firms across three wine-producing regions in Australia. Respondents were drawn from a leading wine industry database. Findings – The findings suggest that, after accounting for all knowledge exchanges, firms across the regions appear to be generally engaging in knowledge exchanges about climate change within their own geographic sub-regions. However, paradoxically, firms in “elite” sub-regions appear to be demonstrating more of a cooperative posture via a greater level of external knowledge exchanges. The results also suggest that implementation rates differ for adaptive climate change innovations only (as opposed to mitigative innovations) to the apparent advantage of firms in elite sub-regions. Research limitations/implications – The study represents Australian wine regions and should not be taken as a general population sample. The impacts of climate change in other wine-producing regions around the world may vary, leading to different results than those found in this study. Practical implications – Wine producers face many challenges with respect to climate change. To respond effectively to this issue, the sharing of knowledge is important to innovate around mitigative and adaptive practices. This research suggests that greater stimulation of open knowledge exchanges is likely needed so that all producers can benefit from industry-wide learning. Originality/value – This paper provides insights to wine scholars, industry practitioners and peak industry bodies seeking to understand and enhance the wine industry’s response to climate change. The paper also points to areas of future research opportunity and provides policy recommendations.

Markets for Australian beef throughout the 20th century have been moulded by world wars, economic depressions, droughts, transport technology, cattle breeding, trade barriers, global competition, livestock disease eradication, human health risks, food safety, Australian Government policy, consumerism and beef quality. Major ‘shocks’ to beef marketing include the development of successful shipments of chilled carcases to Britain in the 1930s, the widespread trade disruption caused by World War II, expansion (early 1950s) and then a reduction in beef exports to Britain (1956), the introduction and then proliferation of Bos indicus derived cattle in northern Australia (1960s), licensing and upgrading of Australian abattoirs to export to USA and the consequential brucellosis and tuberculosis eradication campaign leading to record export tonnages of Australian processing beef to USA (1960–70). In 1980, increased beef trade to Japan began, leading in the late 1980s to expansion of high-quality grain finished products into that market. By 1993, beef exports to Japan (280.5 kt) exceeded those to USA (274.4 kt), signalling the significant shift in beef exports to Asia. Commencing in about 1986, the USA recognised the value of beef exports to Asian markets pioneered by Australia. Australia’s share of the Japanese and South Korean markets has been under intense competition since that time. Another major influence on Australia’s beef market in the early 1990s was growth in live cattle exports to Asian markets in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Live exports accounted for 152000 heads in 1992 and 858000 heads in 1996. Improved management systems (e.g. fences) and consequent regulation of cattle supply even in the wet season, a by-product of the brucellosis and tuberculosis eradication campaign, were indirect drivers of the growth in live exports. Throughout the period 1940–2000, domestic consumption of beef and veal declined from 68 to 33.3 kg/head.year, reflecting competition from other foods, perceptions of health risks, price of beef, periodic food safety scares, vegetarianism, changes in lifestyle and eating habits and lack of consistency of eating quality of beef. Despite this decline, the domestic Australian beef market still consumes a significant component (37%) of total Australian beef production. In 1984–85, the reform of the Australian Meat and Livestock Corporation set in train a major directional change (‘New Direction’) of the beef sector in response to beef market trends. Under Dick Austen’s leadership, the Australian Meat and Livestock Corporation changed the industry’s culture from being ‘production-driven’ to being ‘consumer-driven’. Market research began in Australia, Japan and Korea to establish consumer preferences and attitudes to price, beef appearance and eating quality. Definite consumer requirements were identified under headings of consistency and reliability. The AusMeat carcass descriptors were introduced and a decade later traits like tenderness, meat colour, fat colour, meat texture, taste, smell, and muscle size were addressed. These historical ‘shocks’ that shaped the Australian beef markets have all been accompanied by modification to production systems, breeding programs, herd structure, processing procedures, advertising and promotion, meat retailing and end-use. The increasing importance of the food service sector and the ‘Asian merge’ influence on beef cuts usage in restaurant meals and take-away products are the most recognisable changes in the Australian food landscape. The Cooperative Research Centre¿s research portfolio was built around the changing forces influencing beef markets in the early 1990s. Australia needed to better understand the genetic and non-genetic factors affecting beef quality. One example was the poor success rate of cattle being grain-fed for the Japanese premium markets. Another was the relative contribution of pre- and post-slaughter factors to ultimate eating quality of beef. The Meat Standards Australia scheme was launched in 1997 to address this problem in more detail. The Cooperative Research Centre contributed significantly to this initiative. In the year 2001, Australia, with only 2.5% of world cattle numbers retains the position of world number one beef trader. We trade to 110 countries worldwide. The Australian beef sector is worth A$6 billion annually. The diversity of Australian environments, cattle genotypes and production systems provides us with the ability to meet diverse specifications for beef products. A new set of market forces is now emerging. Strict accreditation rules apply to Australian producers seeking access to the lucrative European Union market. Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies like bovine spongiform encephalopathy and scrapie are a continuing food safety concern in Europe. This and the foot and mouth disease outbreak in Britain early in 2001 have potentially significant indirect effects on markets for Australian beef. And the sleeping giant, foot and mouth disease-free status of Latin American countries Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina continues to emerge as a major threat to Australian beef markets in Canada and Taiwan. As in the past, science and technology will play a significant role in Australia¿s response to these market forces.

Private food standards are an increasingly important regulatory mechanism in the agri-food system. Driven by quality demands of consumers, high profile food scares, changes to the legislative requirements of retailers and increasing risk in global supply chains, retailers are frequently involved in the development of private food standards, and their enforcement along supply chains. This new role for retailers as de facto gate keepers for quality and production processes points to an increase in power of this group.

Regulation theory provides a useful perspective from which to contextualise the economic and regulatory changes that have created an environment in which retailers have both the incentive, and the ability, to impose their requirements throughout the supply chain. This theory suggests that the neo-liberal agendas pursued by many developed nations have not led to a deregulation of production but have created space for re -regulation which has been taken up by global organisations attempting to remain profitable and grow in a highly competitive operating environment. While there is a great deal of enquiry regarding the limitations and opportunities these private standards create for marginal farmers, little has been revealed about the ways in which those producers based in developed countries have been affected. The actor approach provides a framework for the consideration of producers, empowering them and positing that they are not passive recipients of the changes occurring around them.

This thesis examines how the development of GlobalGAP, a private food standard developed by a consortium of many of Europe's largest retailing chains, shaped the production relations of an Australian Citrus producers cooperative. The hypothesis at the heart of this study is that while GlobalGAP may be evidence for a strengthening of the market power of retailers, as well as a mechanism through which retailers can reassert this market power to downstream supply chain actors, producers will have nuanced and varying responses. This suggests that although some producers may be unwilling or unable to certify to the standard, others will successfully negotiate GlobalGAP and incorporate its' requirements in standard business practice. Those that do may benefit from doing so through, for example, increased market access or more streamlined business practices.

The 16th Biennial Conference of the Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics (AAABG) gathers together scientists, extension workers, producers and industry personnel to review developments in the application of new technologies to animal breeding. Conference presentations include 30 invited reviews and papers, and 95 contributed papers. All papers are peer-reviewed, and cover session topics that focus on genetic evaluation systems, gene expression profiling, identification and manipulation of quantitative trait loci, progress in applied programs and advanced statistical and computing techniques. Industry applications are discussed for improvement in production, health and reproduction of domestic livestock, aquaculture species and even crocodiles and ostriches. Institutions and industries in Australia, New Zealand, USA, South Africa, South-East Asia and Japan are represented with significant participation of major Cooperative Research Centres. These proceedings contain the full text of all contributed papers and summaries of the invited reviews which are published separately in the Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture.