Demand and Market Competitiveness of Almond Milk as a Dairy Alternative Beverage in the United States

Senarath Dharmasena, Brooke Kosub and Oral Capps

No 196789, 2015 Annual Meeting, January 31-February 3, 2015, Atlanta, Georgia from Southern Agricultural Economics Association

Abstract: There are many different types of nonalcoholic beverages available in the United States today as compared to a decade ago and the functionality and health dimensions of beverages have changed over the years. Recently, calcium and vitamin fortified dairy alternative beverages, such as almond milk and soymilk have entered the market to compete with conventional milk. Knowledge of price sensitivity, substitutes/complements, and demographic profiling with respect to consumption of dairy alternative beverages is important for manufacturers, retailers, advertisers, nutritionists, and other stakeholders from a competitive intelligence and strategic decision-making perspective. Using nationally representative household level data from 65,000 households (Nielsen Homescan), and tobit econometric procedure, factors affecting the demand for almond milk for all households and households grouped by race, ethnicity, region, and income status will be determined. Moreover, own-price, cross-price, and income elasticities for almond milk delineated by selected demographic segments will be estimated. Preliminary analyses reveal that the own-price elasiticity of demand for almond milk is -3.50. Soymilk is found to be a substitute for almond milk. This information will be useful for almond milk manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers for strategic pricing decisions as well as government policy makers to implement policies related to food consumption and nutrition.

Keywords: Agricultural and Food Policy; Consumer/Household Economics; Demand and Price Analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:saea15:196789

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.196789

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