IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/jlofdr/139447.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What is the New Version of Scale Efficient: A Values-Based Supply Chain Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Gunter, Allison
  • Thilmany, Dawn D.
  • Sullins, Martha

Abstract

Although the growth in direct markets suggests a significant jump in local food purchasing by households, direct marketing still only accounts for a small percentage of total food sales because conventional food supply chains account for the great majority of food dollars. Since these traditional outlets are often unable to integrate local products from small and mid-size producers, new opportunities have arisen for farmers to reach wholesale markets. But the economic question is whether these innovations can compete in terms of efficiency, since the transaction costs associated with product distribution are likely to rise if new systems do not achieve scale economies. The goal of this study is to determine what scale would be needed for a local food distributor located in Northern Colorado to be financially feasible. Since the mission of the distributor is to increase local food access for wholesale buyers and provide a market outlet for small and midsize producers; financial feasibility is a necessity but profit is not the primary goal.

Suggested Citation

  • Gunter, Allison & Thilmany, Dawn D. & Sullins, Martha, 2012. "What is the New Version of Scale Efficient: A Values-Based Supply Chain Approach," Journal of Food Distribution Research, Food Distribution Research Society, vol. 43(1), pages 1-8, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:jlofdr:139447
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.139447
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/139447/files/Gunter_43_1.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.139447?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Thilmany, Dawn & Tegegne, Eyosiyas & Hines, Brett, 2012. "Farmers Markets and Direct Marketing in the Western US: Market Trends and Linkages with Food System Issues," Western Economics Forum, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 11(2), pages 1-9.
    2. Kim, Man-Keun & Curtis, Kynda R. & Yeager, Irvin, 2014. "An Assessment of Market Strategies for Small-Scale Produce Growers," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 17(3), pages 1-18, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:jlofdr:139447. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fdrssea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.