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The wholesale marketing structure for fresh vegetables includes linkages between groups of producer-oriented, consumer-oriented, and redistribution markets. Archaic conditions within this structure have contributed to faster rises in prices of fresh than of processed vegetables. The marketing of fresh vegetables is changing rapidly, however, as chain stores and other large firms seek to lower costs through bypassing segments of the structure and through purchasing directly from shipping points. A new structure seems to be emerging; bargaining associations are replacing producer-oriented markets; small, inefficient markets are being eliminated; direct shipping is increasing; facilities are being improved; and some terminal markets are merging with wholesale food distribution centers that serve larger areas than are presently served by most terminals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hypothesis thai consumers use a two-stage procedure to maximize a utility function in which food items are strongly separable from non-food items is combined with prior information about food price correlations to derive statistically manageable demand equations for fresh oranges and frozen orange concentrate. Special attention is given to the problem of measuring demand when all the variables are measured with error. A new statistical method, which yields consistent demand parameter estimates when such errors are present, is used to compute price and income elasticities of demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The historic rise in food manufacturing in the United States was largely the result of a shift from home to factory processing. To help explain this shift, the household demand for factory processing services is separated from the demand for the other components of manufactured food. The "observed" household demand for food processing services is then viewed as a residual demand; the difference between the household's consumer demand and its own supply of services. Demand relations are estimated for factory processing services related to two major categories of food, fruits and vegetables and bakery products. The broad conclusions are that the income elasticities for processing services for both categories of food are less than or equal to unity; and, that the price elasticities which reflect household substitution of factory processing for home processing are at least as great (in absolute value) as the respective income elasticities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]