Market Structures - Affco

Introduction

This essay is a reflection on the presentation given by our group about Market Structures. For the presentation, we were tasked with determining which market a specific firm fell within, with analysis on why we reached that decision. After choosing a market structure, we were asked to evaluate the threats and opportunities within the industry and present information as to how the firm reacts to them.

This essay will give a brief summary of the presentation before moving into questions that were asked at the conclusion of the presentation. The conclusion of this essay will look at ways in which the topic could have been presented better as well as some further insight into the presentation topic itself.

Summary of Presentation

For the presentation, AFFCO was chosen as the firm we would analyse. The reasons for selecting AFFCO were that the company is an export trader with a large number of suppliers and products, that the company is well known within New Zealand although the level of knowledge about the industry itself is limited in the public view and that the team member who works for AFFCO was high enough within the company structure to gain access to the information required for the presentation. We felt that these reasons meant AFFCO was well suited to a discussion on Market Structure.

During the introduction of our presentation, we gave an overview of AFFCO as well as the New Zealand and international meat industries. We presented economic statistics in regards to the company that would be relevant in determining the market structure. We presented information on the four main market types, Monopoly, Oligopoly, Monopolistic Competition and Perfect Competition before presenting Perfect Competition as the market structure that we felt AFFCO fit within.

This decision was made due to the following factors of Perfect Competition, AFFCO are price takers in their market, there are many buyers and sellers in the market all delivering the...