Structural change in the us dairy industry: growth in scale, regional shifts in milk production and processing, and internationalism

摘要

Structural changes in the US dairy industry, from the early 1980s to the late 1990s, included familiar increases in concentration, industry adjustments to serve large supermarkets, the emergence of two national fluid milk firms (Suiza Foods and DeanFoods), and the emergence of two national dairy cooperatives (Dairy Farmers of America and Land O'Lakes, Inc.). Shifts in the location of milk production in the US to the Western states have caused new dairy product manufacturing plants to locate in those states. This development promises to intensify battles over market share in the expanding US cheese market between Western firms and Upper Midwestern firms. Foreign direct investment in the US dairy industry -- especially by European Union firms and alarge Canadian firm -- increased during the 1980s and 1990s. Facing challenges to expand dairy exports or shrink, the US dairy industry probably will gravitate toward the latter unless government price support and trade policies change to increase priceincentives for US firms to export dairy products.