A Duality Approach to Testing the Economic Behaviour of Dairy-Marketing Co-operatives: The Case of Ireland



Chart 1: Milk Production(1960=100), 1961-1996

YEAR

A third notable development in the behaviour of dairy-marketing cooperatives in Ireland at any
rate has been the huge structural change in their organisational structure. Specifically from about
1987 onwards there has a substantial widening in the ownership base of cooperatives through the
public floatation of these entities. A graphic illustration of the sea change which has occurred in
organisation structure is given in Chart 2 where it can be seen that from 1961 to 1986 none of the
total milk supplied was processed by publically-owned entities2. This percentage had jumped to
41% by 1987 and a steady growth is evident since then to 1996 where an estimated 52.2% of total
supply is now processed by public companies. It is beyond the scope of this paper to speculate as
to the reasons for the structural change (see, for example, Harte (1994), for a discussion of
possible reasons) but it may not be entirely coincidental that the change coincided with the advent
of production quotas. Dairy-processing firms, facing a profit squeeze as their raw material was
fixed in amount, were forced to diversify and for this capital was needed. The most efficient way
to raise capital was through a public floatation. Farmers on the other hand were prepared to cede
part of their assets on the prospect of compensating for the profit losses likely to flow from the
imposition of quotas.

2 Farmers as milk suppliers still retain a majority shareholding in these public companies.



More intriguing information

1. How Offshoring Can Affect the Industries’ Skill Composition
2. THE DIGITAL DIVIDE: COMPUTER USE, BASIC SKILLS AND EMPLOYMENT
3. L'organisation en réseau comme forme « indéterminée »
4. Orientation discrimination in WS 2
5. An alternative way to model merit good arguments
6. The name is absent
7. Change in firm population and spatial variations: The case of Turkey
8. The name is absent
9. The name is absent
10. The name is absent
11. Word searches: on the use of verbal and non-verbal resources during classroom talk
12. LOCAL PROGRAMS AND ACTIVITIES TO HELP FARM PEOPLE ADJUST
13. Transport system as an element of sustainable economic growth in the tourist region
14. The name is absent
15. A model-free approach to delta hedging
16. The name is absent
17. The Prohibition of the Proposed Springer-ProSiebenSat.1-Merger: How much Economics in German Merger Control?
18. The name is absent
19. Empirically Analyzing the Impacts of U.S. Export Credit Programs on U.S. Agricultural Export Competitiveness
20. A Critical Examination of the Beliefs about Learning a Foreign Language at Primary School