Marketing Margins, Practices, and Costs for Soybean and Cottonseed Oils

Excerpts from the report Preface: This study is one of several from the Marketing Research Division concerned with marketing margins, practices, and costs for food items. It is part of a broad program of research designed to reduce the cost of marketing farm products. It supplies information on marketing practices and marketing charges for soybean and cottonseed oil from the time the oilseeds leave the farm until the oil reaches the consumer in the form of margarine or shortening. The marketing margins reported are based largely on average farm prices for soybeans and cottonseed reported to the Agricultural Marketing Service, and on weighted average retail prices for margarine and shortening sold in grocery stores, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Other price and cost data from both published and unpublished sources were also used. Because price data come from various sources, and prices do not always adjust promptly to changed conditions, margins over a short time may show considerable variation. These irregularities adjust over a longer period to show trends in marketing costs