Analysing Consumers at the Aggregate Level

Abstract

The existence of any company involved in the production and distribution of food products depends on consumers’ perception of the value of its products. If consumers lost interest in beef, for example, then cattle could only be used for milk production, and there would be no point in slaughtering, cutting, packaging and distributing meat. So even though most actors in the food chain never actually come into direct contact with consumers, their existence depends on consumers being willing to pay a price for the final product which covers the costs incurred by all actors in the food chain. If we set the price the consumer is willing to pay at 100, then this is what all the actors throughout the food chain have to divide among themselves (figure 3.1). As a rule, who gets what will be related to how much the various actors have contributed to the overall value creation process.