Accounting for Externalities in Agriculture and Food Sector Value Chains

Summary

Agricultural and food networks have become increasingly private and powerful, closely coordinated or fully vertically integrated, self-regulated, global and experience-based. A new cohort of wealthier consumers is demanding new and different goods and services. Delivery of this consumer food experience requires a very well-coordinated value chain or value system. Coordination and cooperation among chain partners involved in these networks are mandatory if they are to be profitable and sustainable. The economic issue is: How should all the chain or system partners be aligned to deliver food experiences that maximise consumer willingness to pay, and also be efficient? And what if any is the role of government in organising or facilitating these systems? To answer these questions this project reviewed the literature across a number of discipline areas as well as a variety of published evaluations of red meat innovations. This review was used to develop, outline and explain a new theoretical framework relating to value chain failure and the provision of value chain goods.