U.S. Fresh Produce Markets: Marketing Channels, Trade Practices, and Retail Pricing Behavior

By Carolyn Dimitri, Abebayehu Tegene, and Phil R. Kaufman

Agricultural Economic Report No. (AER-825) 23 pp, September 2003

Retail consolidation, technological change in production and marketing, and growing consumer demand for produce have altered the traditional market relationships between producers, wholesalers, and retailers. Increasingly, produce suppliers are asked to provide additional marketing services and incentives in exchange for volume purchases and other commitments by buyers. This report synthesizes the results from a multiphase project that examined the dynamics of produce marketing, the produce shipper-retailer relationship, and how changes in the produce market affect the relative market influence of producers, retailers, and consumers.

Keywords: fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh produce, fresh produce marketing channels, supermarket, market power, retail pricing behavior, retail concentration, competition, market structure, trading practices, food prices, ERS, USDA

In this report ...

Chapters are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.

• Research Brief, 37 Kb | html
• Abstract, Acknowledgments, and Contents, 168 Kb
• Summary, 114 Kb
• Introduction,107 Kb
• Today’s Produce Industry, 150 Kb
• New Relationships Between Retailers and Shippers: Trade Practices, 127 Kb
• Retailer Pricing Behavior, 142 Kb
• Conclusion, 93 Kb
• References, 118 Kb

• Entire Document, 1,076 Kb

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Updated date: September 23, 2003