Derived Demand for Disaggregated Cheese Products Imported Into Japan

The objective of this article is to estimate the derived demand for imported cheese products into Japan when cheese import data are disaggregated by specific cheese group and by source country of production+We provide empirical measures of the sensitivity of demand to changes in total imports, own-price, and cross-prices among exporting countries for four market segments of the cheese category+ Derived demands for U+S+ fresh, grated, and processed cheese products are perfectly inelastic, and it is thus suggested that competition in these segments be based upon differences in product characteristics+ However, the derived demand for “other” cheese is elastic, and competition can be price driven+ Hence, an advantage of this paper’s approach is that disaggregating import data for a product category helps identify specific marketing strategies for market segments within the category+ @EconLit citations: Q110, Q130, Q170+# © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc+