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Unraveling Demand for Dairy-Alternative Beverages in the United States: The Case of Soymilk

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2016

Senarath Dharmasena*
Affiliation:
Agribusiness, Food, and Consumer Economics Research Center in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M University
Oral Capps Jr.
Affiliation:
Agribusiness, Food, and Consumer Economics Research Center in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M University
*
Correspondence: Senarath DharmasenaAFCERCDepartment of Agricultural EconomicsTexas A&M University2124 TAMUCollege Station, TX 77843-2124Phone 979.862.2894 ▪ Email sdharmasena@tamu.edu.
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Abstract

Soymilk is one of the fastest growing categories in the U.S dairy alternative functional beverage market. Using household-level purchase data from Nielsen's 2008 Homescan panel and the Tobit econometric procedure, we estimate conditional and unconditional own-price, cross-price, and income elasticities for soymilk, white milk, and flavored milk. Income, age, employment status, education level, race, ethnicity, region, and presence of children in a household are significant drivers of demand for soymilk. White milk and flavored milk are competitors for soymilk, and soymilk is a competitor for white milk. Strategies for pricing and targeted marketing of soymilk are also discussed.

Type
Selected Papers
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association 

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