Studies on broiler's futures market

In Japan, no contracts in livestock but 8 agricultural products (red beans, imported soybeans, corn, raw sugar, dry cocoon, raw silk, Arabica coffee, Robusta coffee) had been traded on futures markets until October, 1999. The domestic fresh broiler leg meat contracts began trading on Kanmon Commodity Exchange in November 1999. In the U.S., many contracts of livestock products have been traded on agricultural futures markets (i.e. Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT)) and the trading volumes of CME's futures commodities concerning beef and pork were very large in 1999. The futures contracts in broilers and eggs had been traded several times, but were eventually discontinued. In 1919, Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) was founded and the trading in egg futures began on CME to furnish hedging facilities for dealers and continuous price quotations. Broiler contracts had been traded on Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) since 1968 to 1981 and had been traded on CME since 1979 to 1982 and since 1991 to 1995. This study has 6 chapters. In the Chapter 1 of this study, I reported distribution and price formation of broiler meat in the U.S. In the Chapter 2, I investigated the reasons why the broiler futures contracts during 1991 to 1995 failed and the possibility of which broilers futures contracts would be restored. In the Chapter 3, I analyzed the distribution and the price formation of chicken meat in Japan. In Japan, the index price for domestic broilers is the weighted average wholesale price of both boneless leg meat and boneless breast meat reported to Nihon Keizai Shinbun (Nikkei) from 11 major chicken meat first receivers in Tokyo. The Nikkei broiler price also affects the price formation of other kind of chickens such as branded quality chickens and spent hens. In 1973, in Japanese Chicken meat market, the share of whole birds, cut-ups, parts and deboned meat, and imported chicken meat was 59.3, 37.3, and 3.4% respectively. However, in 1994 the share shifted to 8.9, 59.7 and 31.4% respectively. The specification for commodity futures market should be the boneless leg meat of domestic broilers. In the Chapter 4, I analyzed the propriety concerning the price volatilities of the Japanese domestic broilers on the broiler futures market in Japan. Judging from the analysis of relationship between yearly coefficient of variation and yearly volume of agricultural products' trading on Japanese futures markets, I suppose, the price volatilities of the Japanese domestic broilers boneless meat, which were both boneless leg meat and boneless breast meat, had suitability which could be traded on the broilers futures markets in Japan. In the Chapter 5, I studied contract grades of broiler futures market in Japan based on the evaluation of wholesale market prices and the estimation of trading volumes concerning domestic chicken meat and imported corn from U.S. I suppose boneless leg meat of Japanese domestic chicken would be the most suitable choices as contract grade in the broiler futures market. In the Chapter 6, I evaluated domestic broiler leg meat's deliveries by 51 Japanese broiler companies and 32 distributors and price reliability on the Japanese broiler futures market. I suppose the broiler futures market prices on Kanmon Commodity Exchange would be reliable to Japanese broiler industry. This broiler futures trading on Kanmon Commodity Exchange would be a case study for the beef and pork futures trading in Japan