Developing strategies for chicken meat producers against market prices risks in Turkey (Game Theory approach)

Purpose - The major aim of study was to determine the chicken meat producer's optimal selling times. Design/methodology/approach - The method used for this purpose was Wald, Benefit and Regret criterions of Game Theory. The transformed Wald, Benefit and Regret linear programming models were solved to find the optimal solution. The data consisted of monthly chicken meat prices received by producers between 2000-2007, which were obtained from the Poultry Meat Producers and Breeders Association. Findings - The optimal solutions of Wald and Benefit criteria showed that June was the best selling month for chicken meat producers in Turkey. August was found to be the optimal selling month according to the Minimum regret criterion. In light of the Maximum criterion it was concluded that the producers would be at highest regret positions with 98.28 percent in event of selling in November. Originality/value - The results found in this study could be an indicator for individual chicken producers for a more competitive bargaining power when they make a contract with chicken meat production and marketing firms.