Excerpt from Marketing Long-and Medium-Grain Rice: The Influence of Supply on Wholesale Prices and Margins (Classic Reprint)
The second Objective is to appraise the impact of seasonal changes in the relative wholesale prices upon milling margins and costs of marketing for millers handling different types of rice for the wholesale trade. Some of the means by which stability in relative price levels could be achieved and consequently costs of marketing reduced are also Shown.
Actual wholesale prices at New Orleans for medium and long-grain rice and at Houston for long-grain rice, together with annual production of the two types of rice, are the basic secondary data for the statistical analysis.
The underlying assumption of the entire study is that medium? And long grain rice are fairly good substitutes for one another. For some consumer groups in the domestic and in selected foreign markets, one type of rice may be a comparatively poor substitute for another type. But, for another group, the two types of rice may be good substitutes. This distinction between the preferences of individual consumers is substantially diminished if an entire market area or total demand forces are analyzed.