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The University of Tennessee | Institute of Agriculture

Department of Agricultural Economics

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Marketing

The food and fiber marketing system links farms to consumers via food manufacturing, wholesaling, and retailing. Transformation of farm products to consumer goods encompasses transportation, storage, processing, distribution, advertising, and marketing. 

The Department of Agricultural Economics provides instruction and outreach designed to develop skills for analysis of food and fiber product markets and formulation of sound agribusiness marketing strategies. Economic analysis is conducted to provide decision makers and policy makers with information about market decisions ranging from farm-level direct marketing through retail consumer food and fiber policy.  Economic analyses include market arrangements,  market consolidation and structural change, contracting, vertical coordination, new product development, and consumer food and nutrition choices.

  • Teaching
  • Research
  • Extension

The Department teaches courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels that deal with market decisions by agribusiness firms. A list of courses is given below and course descriptions can be found in the Courses of Instruction sections of the latest Undergraduate and Graduate Catalogs

Undergraduate Courses

Graduate Courses

The Department hosts the award winning UT National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) Marketing Team. In 2008, the team of UT students placed 3rd at the national Student Marketing Competition held in conjunction with the National Agri-Marketing Conference in Kansas City, MO. The team is open to all students. Team members decide on an ag related product, then develop a total marketing plan for that product. The plan includes an analysis of the market including product competition, a decision on target audience, a pricing and distribution scheme, a schedule for the different promotional efforts to advertise the product, a pro forma 3-year income statement of expected results, and means of measuring results and reacting to unexpected results. The final plan is presented as a written executive summary and as an oral presentation to professional members of the NAMA organization. All team members participate in the final oral presentation. The National Agri-Marketing Conference is held in a different major city in the U.S. each year. Team members can participate on the team more than one year and may earn academic credit.

Projects

  • "Food Demand by Low-income Households." Hatch Project-Yen-TEN00363/Accession #0213663, 2007-2011. Steven Yen, PI.
  • “Cellulosic to Biofuels Market Development: Producers’ Feedstock Production and Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Cellulosic Ethanol”  USDA National Research Initiative Competitive Grant, 2008-2009.  Kimberly Jensen PI, Christopher Clark, Burton English, and Daniel De La Torre Ugarte, Co-PI’s.

Selected Publications

The Extension faculty provide up-to-date market information to Tennessee's crop and livestock producers through weekly and monthly publications.

The Extension faculty are also actively involved with county Extension Agents, Area Farm Management Specialists and other state specialists in teaching producers what is taking place in the marketplace and how that impacts their operations. To learn more about resources available in the area of marketing, visit our livestock economics, forage economics, and crop economics pages.

Extension faculty focusing on marketing of Tennessee's agricultural products are