Affiliation
Univ Arizona, Dept Agr & Resource EconIssue Date
2020-02-16
Metadata
Show full item recordPublisher
WILEYCitation
Schaefer, K.A. and Scheitrum, D. (2020), Sewing terror: price dynamics of the strawberry needle crisis. Aust J Agric Resour Econ. doi:10.1111/1467-8489.12366Rights
© 2020 Australasian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society Inc.Collection Information
This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at repository@u.library.arizona.edu.Abstract
In September 2018, a former strawberry-picking supervisor for a strawberry farm in New South Wales was arrested for inserting sewing needles in hundreds of punnets of fresh strawberries sold in retail stores across several Australian states. This paper analyses the 2018 Australian strawberry needle scare as a case study on the market impacts of agro-terrorism events. We develop a novel four-step procedure to estimate the effects of the strawberry needle contamination on wholesale fresh strawberry prices. Our results indicate a drop in wholesale fresh strawberries prices of about 20% while the needle crisis was ongoing. However, public and private supply restrictions caused wholesale prices to rise by up to 94% relative to expected dynamics over several weeks in the immediate wake of the incident.Note
12 month embargo; published online: 16 February 2020ISSN
1364-985XEISSN
1467-8489Version
Final accepted manuscriptae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1111/1467-8489.12366
