In the past year, trade practices between fresh produce shippers and food retailers gained national attention. Shippers are concerned that recent retail consolidation has led to market power and the growing incidence of fees and services. Retailers argue that these new trade practices reflect...

Greater flexibility in U.S. farm programs with elimination of the restriction on the planting of fruit and vegetable crops (FAVR crops) is likely to be a major issue in congressional 2007 farm policy discussions. Michigan is a state with a wide range of both FAVR and program crops planted under...

The importance of the effects of non-tariff barriers on international agricultural trade has become widely recognized and discussed as WTO negotiation has promoted the reduction of tariff rates around the world. Administrative barriers include the high cost of obtaining accurate information on...

The Michigan Apple Committee (MAC) is a commodity organization comprised of approximately 1000 apple growers in Michigan. The objective of this study was to evaluate growers' perceptions about the effectiveness of past MAC programs and solicit their opinions about future directions for MAC in...

The wholesale sector is an intermediate stage in the supply chain of fresh produce. In general, business operations in this sector do not transform a specific product, but rather provide services related to the sale of the product. The term 'wholesaler' refers to all merchants that are part of...

This report presents global and domestic information regarding production, trade and market developments for pickled cucumbers. U.S. cucumber production and trade are commonly divided into two categories: fresh and pickling. Michigan is the largest producer of pickling cucumbers in the country,...