Eating quality is one of the most important factors influencing demand for beef. Meat Standards Australia is a voluntary beef grading system aimed at improving consumer certainty about beef quality, improving overall beef quality and strengthening supply chain linkages. Since its inception in...

A stochastic input distance function is estimated to analyse the efficiency with which physical characteristics of individual lot-fed beef cattle in Australia are combined with conventional inputs to produce a final product possessing defined quality attributes. High mean technical efficiency...

We estimate total factor productivity in wool production spatially across benchmarked farms in four climatic areas in Eastern Australia. Estimates are decomposed into an environment-technology gap and technical efficiency relative to the production possibilities in each area. The...

The Australian preserved mushrooms industry is one of a number of industries in the horticultural sector that is under threat from cheaper imported products. The Australian Customs Service is currently investigating the alleged dumping of Chinese imported cans of preserved mushrooms that feature...

Recent low estimates of total factor productivity change for wool producers in the Australian sheep industry indicate that they are struggling to improve their performance. This evidence is at odds with the views of many technical observers of industry performance, prompting us to re-estimate...

In this paper, we assess the potential for rehabilitation of comparative analysis under its new guise of benchmarking. After a brief description of comparative analysis, we discuss the deficiencies that surrounded its fall in reputation: neglect of economic principles, limited scope for action,...

This paper reports on an analysis of technical efficiency and varietal differences in pistachio production in Iran. A random sample of 475 farmers was selected from the province of Kerman in 2003 and 2004. In this study, farmers are classified into three groups according to the variety of tree...

"Clean and safe" agricultural products are an important issue among consumers, farmers and governments. Many developing countries develop their produce at various points along the ‘clean’ continuum based on production practices related to use of synthetic chemicals. Organic farming is...

Scope economies can be used in studies of farming systems to provide a measure of synergies between different farm enterprises and between activities within farm enterprises. In this paper, they are reported for farms in a benchmarking group in the Wheat-Sheep Zone in New South Wales, Australia,...

Rice producers in the Philippines operate in different physical environments that are largely beyond their control, especially in terms of the agroclimatic conditions they face. Each rice area requires a unique set of location-specific technologies to match its location-specific needs. The rice...