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This study estimates a complete system of supply-demand equations and analyzes the effects of income and price changes on demand, age of animal, technology, and quantity of imported beef on local beef production. The cointegration and error correction model techniques were applied to the analysis of beef supply and demand in Peninsular Malaysia. Results indicated positive and significant supply response of price for each category of female cattle and buffalo age cohort. However, female cattle over 3 years of age were significant decision variables on the number of cattle (buffalo) to be slaughtered for beef production. On the demand side, expenditure and price of competing meats were the main factors that affected the quantity of beef consumed. The number of breeding cattle/buffalo should be increased through imports to retain a higher number of female calves and to improve the local beef cattle population.

The relationship between farm, wholesale, and retail prices provides insight into marketing efficiency including the welfare of both consumers and farmers. Investigating the price transmission process at different levels in the marketing channel is crucial in assessing the market efficiency in poultry meat and egg subsectors in Malaysia. Changes in the farm or wholesale price could lead to changes in retail prices asymmetrically and this might distort the poultry and egg markets. This study applied the error correction model of price transmission for the entire poultry meat and egg value chain. The test was carried out using retail and farm monthly price data of poultry meat and eggs from 2000 to 2007. Empirical results suggest that the farm and retail price transmission process for the poultry and egg market is asymmetric. Price transmission estimates with rising farm prices generally are larger than corresponding estimates associated with falling farm prices.

The study investigates demographic and attitudinal characteristics that can affect the purchase decisions of marine fish among Malaysian consumers. A survey was conducted on Kuala Lumpur households using structured questionnaires. Seven hundred respondents were randomly interviewed with regard to their buying behaviour pattern, attitude and perception on fresh marine fish consumption. The data were analyzed using a logit binary model. It was found that the size and income of the households, gender, taste and the nutritional value of fresh fish significantly influenced the purchasing behavior of the respondents. The Malaysian seafood sector may find this study useful to encourage further consumer-based studies for promoting the growth of the domestic fresh marine fish and seafood market in general.

This paper adopts Data Envelopment Analysis Approach (DEA) and Tobit Regression Model to measure technical efficiency of paddy farms in the Central region of Thailand and determine the agricultural extension factors which influence the technical inefficiency of farmers. The cross-sectional data in the crop year 2009/2010 were randomly collected from 263 farmers who operated their farms by broadcasting methods. The variables consist of the data in production namely paddy yield, seed, fertilizers, pesticides, fuels and wage in order to measure technical efficiency; and the data about individual farmers’ demographic and socio-economic factors as well as agricultural extension and environmental factors in order to determine the factors affecting technical inefficiency. The empirical results show that the estimated technical efficiencies of the farmers ranged between 0.04 per cent and 100 per cent while the mean level of technical efficiency is 52.3 per cent. Technical efficiency is influenced by age and educational level of farmers. Attendance in Food Safety Training Project and Communicating directly with extension officers are also important factors in contributing positive impact on the level of technical efficiency. This implies that Agricultural Extension Service and Training can enhance higher farm efficiency. Therefore, government should provide the accessible channel linked between officers and farmers as well as improve training program to serve their needs and stimulate farmers to increase their production efficiency.

The trend of meat consumption in Malaysia has shown a significant growth since early 1970’s. Total amount of meat per capita consumed has grown 57.3% from 1990 to 2003. Poultry and pork have been the dominant meats consumed in Peninsular Malaysia. However, the highest growths were chicken and beef, which have increased 99.15% and 57% from 1990 to 2003 respectively, while the consumption of pork per capita declined 22.3 %. Among the factors cited for this meat consumption growth were the consequences of economic development and associated changes in dietary patterns, taste and preferences in the country. Other reports indicated that the greater part of these changes had been due to consumer income growth and price effects besides high population growth. These spectacular changes make the answers to meat demand estimates in Malaysia more complex. Thus, empirical analysis employing the systems approach is used in this study. This study is motivated by two aspects. First, various authors have estimated demand of meat in Malaysia in the past and most of these estimations date back to before 1990s. The elasticities obtained from that estimates cannot be used for predictions since many structural changes have occurred in Malaysia since that time. Second, most of studies conducted in Malaysia have focused on estimation of and explanation on structural parameters in using one demand model. Very limited or no attention has been paid to compare among different demand models. Therefore we are interested to know if there are differences in the performance among demand models and choose the appropriate one that could fit in Malaysia data. Finally, we are interested to carriy out a test to identify any structural changes following the discovery of Nipah virus (NV) in Peninsular Malaysia and also to determine if changing the taste and preferences of consumer due to income growth has caused significant changes in the structure of meat demand in Malaysia. The main objective of the st

The main economic functions of the futures market are to provide price discovery and risk management facilities. It is well known that the futures market can function well only when the futures prices provide accurate price forecast to subsequent cash prices. The greater the degree of price forecast accuracy, the greater the effectiveness of the futures market in terms of performing its economic functions. If the market is not efficient, effective transmission of information from one market to another will be impaired, thus the value of the futures market in price discovery and hedging. The creation of the crude palm oil (CPO) futures market in Malaysia was to fulfil the need for an efficient pricing and hedging mechanism for Malaysia's palm oil. Therefore, the extent to which CPO futures market has served as an efficient center of price discovery and risk management, has been the focus of considerable research. In general, debate has centered around the extent of which futures market provide price leadership to cash market and the ability of futures market to predict subsequent spot debate has centered around the extent of which futures market provide price leadership to cash market and the ability of futures market to predict subsequent spot price in accurate way. Empirical evidence has shown that CPO futures prices performed relatively better compared to other forecasting models. However, no comparison is made in forecast accuracy of CPO futures with expert opinion. This approach is unique in the sense that it examines the relative efficiency of ex ante forecasts rather then ex post. The objectives of this study are: firstly, to evaluate the forecast accuracy of the CPO futures market relative to expert prediction. Secondly, to test the relationship between the futures, forward and cash prices, to examine whether these price series have the same properties and relationship in the long-run. AGS and the Johansen's cointegrations techniques were used to analyze the