Contemporary Producer-Owned Lamb Processing Ventures: Lessons Learned

摘要

The U.S. sheep and goat industry is in transition. Its producers have been forced211u001eto adjust to a more market-oriented environment with less Government income 211u001esupport, more international competition, and increased market concentration 211u001ebeyond the producer level. In trying to realize higher returns for the lamb 211u001eproduction enterprise in the early 1990s many lamb producers became involved in 211u001egroup projects that had value-added processing and marketing through vertical 211u001eintegration as the primary way to capture more of the consumers food dollar. Most 211u001ewere unsuccessful. Spokespersons for the U.S. sheep and goat industry, while not 211u001ebeing critical of the unsuccessful ventures, believed that lessons learned from 211u001ethese business failures could greatly benefit future vertical coordination 211u001eefforts in the lamb processing and marketing arena. A case study approach was 211u001eused to evaluate two producer-owned ventures-American Lamb Producers, Inc. and 211u001eVirginia Lamb Cooperative. Findings from these case studies have relevance in 211u001edetermining the potential for future producer-owned ventures into value-added 211u001elamb processing and marketing in an industry characterized by significant 211u001econcentration among a few established marketing firms.