A Model of Weekly Price Discovery for Florida Celery

Considerable attention has recently been paid (Rhodes, Tomek and Robinson) to the various alternative mechanisms for discovering prices of agricultural products. Alternative mechanisms include organized markets and auctions, individual price negotiations, group bargaining, supply-demand estimation pricing, and formula pricing. One such price discovery mechanism is currently employed by the Florida Celery Exchange, a voluntary marketing cooperative which represents all major Florida celery producers in setting prices. The role and performance of the Exchange in influencing weekly Florida celery harvesting and pricing decisions are of particular interest because the Exchange's price-fixing activities represent, at least a priori, a departure from the traditional competitive price determination process.