Government intervention in the market for raisins Assignment

Government intervention in the market for raisins - Assignment Example Producers of specialty crops like raisin in California structured themselves into marketing associations. This essay paper will look into the broad subject relating with marketing orders, and narrow down into marketing order for raisins in the US. Discussion In 1949, following twenty years of ceaseless agitation, discouragement, bitter struggle, pools, forced combinations and raisin exchanges, raisin growers from California voted to come up with a federal marketing order based on the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1937. Critical components of this marketing order have brought a number of economic impacts, a program of price discrimination and a program of supply control. The Agriculture Secretary, in line with the provisions of the law, issues and carries out amendments on the same from time to time. Such orders are intended to regulate handling of specified agricultural commodities in line with the legal framework in place (Clary 23). A board that consists of growers and packers, cal led Raisin Administrative Committee (RAC) is bestowed with the mandate of watching over the marketing order. RAC is a federal marketing order which is led by packers, 47 growers and a public member. This authority is directly supervised by the United States Department of Agriculture which was established in 1949 due to the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937. ... isin growers have brought complaint regarding Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937 which empowers government to confiscate some portion of the yearly raisin crop, the initiative which, for instance, saw 47% being confiscated in 2003 and 30% in 2004. Farmers who don’t cooperate in surrendering their raisins are penalized. The amount that should be surrendered to the government is based on the annual production volume and other factors like production by competing countries. Taxpayers are not left out in analysis of the potential effects of this surrender. The surrender minimizes the available share of raisin supply which in return causes the consumers of the product to buy it at higher prices. RAC does not pay any consideration to farmers upon expropriations. Actually much of the raisin is given away and others sold for export at low prices. It is only after it has covered its costs that the remaining profits, if any, are given to the farmers. Farmers who disregard this marketing order are fined. Raisin is not the only fruit that is federally regulated. In total, close to thirty products are subject to the ‘marketing orders’, overseeing of which is conducted by the Department of Agriculture. In other products like milk, the system of Federal Milk Marketing Order does set the lowest prices for milk and milk products. Farmers, if they were given an opportunity, would vote in abolishment of the marketing order rule. It is plain that the pronouncements of this rule have economically affected them. It is rational to produce more and reap more from the same but if the rule denies farmers of reaping what they have produced and unfairly handing the same to government, which is seen as wasteful decision (Agriculture.). On the other hand, farmers can still vote for

Organisational strategy and decision making Essay

Organisational strategy and decision making - Essay Example It has also been observed that the company had set certain strategic directions for future, such as enlarging business in growing economies and empowering its competitive positioning among others. In order to mitigate the strategic issues and successfully attain the strategic directions for future, certain recommendations comprising both short and long-term have been provided. These include adopting, as well as utilising, the strategy of cost leadership and making substantial investments, especially in developing the performances of the entire workforce. Table of Contents Abstract 2 Introduction 4 Internal Audit–Strengths and Weaknesses 5 Strengths 5 Weaknesses 5 External Audit – Opportunities and Threats 6 Opportunities 6 Threats 6 Discussion 7 Evaluation 9 Conclusion 11 Recommendations 12 References 14 Introduction Strategies are fundamentally described as the ways that a particular organisation selects to compete with its key business market competitors or to comply with the requirements of the customers. In this similar context, organisational strategies are often defined as a pattern of effective policies, decisions, performances or programmes that support an organisation to accomplish its predetermined business goals and most significantly to attain significant competitive position over the major business market contenders (Rothwell, 1998). It has been apparently observed that the organisational strategies adopted as well as implemented by the organisations affect their decision-making procedures by a significant level. This is owing to the reason that the organisations deeply rely upon formulating effective strategies for the purpose of controlling as well as coordinating the information flow amid different parties such as the employees, stakeholders, investors and the customers (Fairholm, 2009). Tesco PLC is regarded as one of the biggest retailers in the entire globe which performs its business functions in 14 nations. The company employs nearly 5, 00,000 personnel and serves significant portion of customers every week (Tesco, 2013). The visions of the company are to attain utmost value from the customers that it serves and also the communities where it operates its different operational functions. Moreover, the other major vision of the company is to flourish itself as a pioneering as well as a modern company and grow its business in every region throughout the globe (Tesco, 2013). In this discussion, the internal audit of Tesco in the form of strengths as well as weaknesses and the external audit in the form of opportunities along with threats will be taken into concern. Moreover, a comprehensive analysis about the different strategic directions of the company will also be portrayed in the discussion. Internal Audit–Strengths and Weaknesses Strengths One of the major strengths of Tesco is that it is a leading organisation in the business market of the United Kingdom and is known as one of the best retail ch ains across the globe. Moreover, the other strengths of the company are strong brand recognition, increased business reputation and deliverance of superior quality products in accordance with meeting the requirements of the customers. In addition, the execution of e-retailing activities while conducting business is also regarded as the other crucial strength of the company. In this similar context, the company has acquired success due to its formulation