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The principal chemicals used by Western Australia’s horticultural industries for field control and post-harvest disinfestation procedures for Mediterranean fruit fly are soon to be withdrawn from use due to public health concerns. When this occurs, the necessary switch to alternative control methods such as bait sprays and intensive fruit fly trapping will involve additional producer costs. Given these costs, this paper evaluates the option of eradicating Mediterranean fruit fly from the State and discusses possible cost sharing arrangements between government and industry that could be reached for mutual benefit.

This study is motivated by the proposition that the objectives of the AWB Ltd have changed since semi-privatisation of the Australian Wheat Board under the Wheat Marketing Act, 1989. Conceptualising this change of objectives as a shift from revenue maximization to profit maximization, this study examines the impact of such a change on the pricing policies of a multi-market price-setting firm. More specifically, this paper investigates, using two hypothetical objective functions, a risk averse AWB’s price-setting behaviour in an “overseas” and a “domestic” market in response to recent wheat industry developments. In the analysis these developments manifest themselves as differing price elasticities, differing transport costs and uncertain demand functions, and their implications particularly for the prices paid by domestic consumers are explored.

As a signatory of the World Trade Organisation Agreement, Australia has a responsibility to ensure that the behaviour of its internal markets for food and food-related products abide by the same rules and regulations as international trade. There is therefore an increasing need to demonstrate the validity of any measure which restricts competition between production centres to ensure against an appeal and/or retaliatory actions by trading counterparts. This paper explores two economic evaluation techniques which can be used to examine the welfare implications of quarantine policies imposed on interstate trade, and discusses practical applications of each with the aid of two case studies. One approach relies on an aggregated, industry-wide perspective, and is shown to be most appropriate when the cost characteristics of an industry’s component growing regions are similar. The other focuses on spatial elements of a domestic industry, which is best used when there are significant cost differences between component producing regions. In addition to examining the accuracy of these techniques in policy analysis, the size characteristics of the industries they can be applied to are also analysed. Using the examples of the mango and tomato industries in Western Australia, both of which enjoy quarantine protection from interstate growers, it is shown that the consumer welfare implications of competition restrictions outweigh producer welfare implications in larger industries, and vice versa.

Fraser (1997) considered the impact of protein premiums and discounts on a grower’s income stream and willingness‐to‐pay for a forward contract where the protein premium and discount system is centred on a grower’s existing expected protein level. This article extends these results to consider the impact of a protein premium and discount system which is not centred on a grower’s existing expected protein level. The article suggests that the grower’s existing expected protein level plays a crucial role in determining the impact of the system.

Fraser (1997) considered the impact of protein premiums and discounts on a grower’s income stream and willingness‐to‐pay for a forward contract where the protein premium and discount system is centred on a grower’s existing expected protein level. This article extends these results to consider the impact of a protein premium and discount system which is not centred on a grower’s existing expected protein level. The article suggests that the grower’s existing expected protein level plays a crucial role in determining the impact of the system.

This paper presents results of a survey of Western Australian wheat growers designed to elicit perceptions of the impact of protein premiums and discounts for wheat on income, utility and off-farm risk management. The results indicate that a grower’s perception of the scheme’s impact on expected income and utility depends on that grower’s expected protein level. Additionally, growers do not perceive protein premiums and discounts to have affected the variance of income, or their willingness-to-pay for a forward contract. These latter findings are contrary to previous studies of actual rather than perceived effects. However, the perceptions of growers are understandable given that the scheme’s effect on the variance of income is small relative to its effect on the level of expected income. A further result is that growers with low expected protein levels expect to be disadvantaged by the scheme, which is consistent with studies of actual effects.

This paper assesses the welfare effects of a combination of policy changes affecting PNG cocoa producers during the 1990's. These policy changes are the introduction (in 1992) and intended removal (in 1997) of a price support policy plus an intervening devaluation and subsequent floating of the domestic currency (kina). Using a model for analysing the effects of these policy changes on a producer's price distribution and for converting these price effects into welfare effects, combined with price, cost and yield data from the PNG cocoa industry, it is shown that both the price support policy and the devaluation have been of benefit to producers. However, the devaluation has also diminished the effectiveness of the price support policy so that the negative consequences of its intended removal have been lessened.

This paper assesses the welfare effects of a combination of policy changes affecting PNG cocoa producers during the 1990's. These policy changes are the introduction (in 1992) and intended removal (in 1997) of a price support policy plus an intervening devaluation and subsequent floating of the domestic currency (kina). Using a model for analysing the effects of these policy changes on a producer's price distribution and for converting these price effects into welfare effects, combined with price, cost and yield data from the PNG cocoa industry, it is shown that both the price support policy and the devaluation have been of benefit to producers. However, the devaluation has also diminished the effectiveness of the price support policy so that the negative consequences of its intended removal have been lessened.

This paper develops a model of the impact of introducing a protein payments system on a farmer's nitrogen application. The model. specifies a relationship between yield, protein, nitrogen and seasonal conditions and incorporates this relationship into a decision framework of optimal nitrogen application. The introduction of a protein payments system is shown to have a positive impact on nitrogen application if the critical protein level for extra payments is less than or equal to the farmer's existing expected protein level. However, if the reverse situation applies, the nitrogen response is ambiguous and dependant on both the critical protein level and the level of yield uncertainty. Further empirical work is required.