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The Decline of Primary Producer Power

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

G.F. Ray
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Extract

The middle years of this decade will go down in economic history as a period when primary products hit rock bottom, whatever method is used to illustrate their real value or purchasing power. There have been hardly any exceptions to this general decline. Petroleum (by far the most important primary product), foodstuffs, agricultural industrial materials, minerals and metals all shared the same fate, though the extent of their losses differed. The only exception has been coffee, owing to unusually adverse weather conditions.

Type
Articles
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 121 , August 1987 , pp. 40 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © 1987 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

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References

Notes

(1) OECD, Economic Outlook, no. 39, May 1986, p.7.

(2) The world average yield (tons per hectare) of cereals rose as follows: 1960-70: 1.43; 1970-80: 1.83; 1980-6: 2.17; 1985-6: 2.32.

(3) See Michael J. Roarty, ‘The impact of the Common Agricultural Policy on agricultural trade and development’, National Westminster Bank Quarterly Review, February 1987, pp.12-28. This contains—among other things—detailed estimates as well as references to other publications concerning the quantifiable effects of the CAP on world prices, etc.

(4) This is precisely what has been happening recently in the aluminium industry: closure of smelters in Japan and elsewhere, temporary cuts in output at other traditional producers, and the entry of newcomers elsewhere (in Brazil, Australia and some OPEC countries) based on the existence of cheap energy sources.