Volume 117 - Issue 2

This article examines the variations in mean technical efficiency estimates in organic agriculture and the factors that explain the observed variations. A three-stage process was employed in data collection. Firstly, journals on organic agriculture and related disciplines were identified and searched. Secondly, several publishers’ websites and databases, namely Cambridge Journals, Elsevier, Emerald, Oxford University Press, Sage, Taylor and Francis, and Wiley, among others, were covered. Databases included AgEcon Search, CAB Abstracts, DOAJ, EBSCOhost, Google Scholar and ScienceDirect. Thirdly, the reference lists of studies found in the first and second stages were searched to identify additional literature. In all, 42 studies constituting 109 observations published in the period 2002-2014 were found. Unlike existing literature on technical efficiency quantitative reviews in agriculture, this article employs a battery of tests to select the appropriate solution for multiple observations from the same primary study, as well as the appropriate functional form for the selected fractional regression model. The mean technical efficiency of organic agriculture for the period of study and the effects of other study characteristics are thoroughly discussed.

Russia is often considered the most prominent country to become a leader on the world grain market. However, several issues slow down Russia’s agricultural progress, for example: a lack of infrastructure and investments, unequal regional development and inefficient use of production technologies. This study therefore examines the grain production potential of Russian regions by employing a modified approach to stochastic frontier analysis that allows us to include not only production technologies, but also indicators of the country’s heterogeneity and diversity among regions. The results obtained indicate that climate conditions in combination with the level of human and institutional development, and infrastructure have significant effects on the production structure of regions and therefore should not be neglected while assessing regional policies and production potential.

Many studies have analysed vertical price transmission using time-series econometric methods but vertical price transmission in the milk market in Russia has not been investigated. This paper studies vertical price transmission along the whole milk supply chain in the Russian market using the autoregressive distributed lags model. Monthly farm-gate and retail prices in Voronezh Oblast, a historically large agrarian region located to the south of Moscow, covering the period from 2002 to 2014 were used in the analysis. When estimating the vertical price transmission in the dairy market, seasonality should be taken into account. Using a cointegration technique, no empirical evidence is found for cointegration between farm-gate and retail prices. There is unidirectional Granger causality from retail to farm prices and not vice versa. The results support the assumption that price changes are not transmitted efficiently from one level to another and support the view that Russian retailers have more market power than farmers.

International trade theory suggests that advanced trade integration may lead to higher levels of intra-industry trade (IIT). The enlargement of the European Union (EU) during last decade is as a good example for which to analyse the IIT in agri-food products. The aim of the paper is to analyse the pattern and drivers of horizontal IIT within the EU between 1999 and 2010. Previous empirical studies fail to provide an exact link between the theory and the data. Thus, a new empirical strategy developed to test the predictions of Helpman and Krugman (1985) model is employed. At the country level, Belgium, France, Netherlands and Germany report the highest levels of IIT within the EU. The calculations mainly support Cieslik’s (2005) proposal to find the missing link between empirics and theory of IIT. In addition, the results are robust to alternative subsamples.

The article analyses country- and industry-specific determinants of horizontal and vertical intra-industry trade (IIT) in agri-food products between the Visegrad countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovak Republic) and the European Union in the period 1999-2013. The results show that IIT is mainly of a vertical nature in the Visegrad countries, though the majority of their exports consist of low quality/value-added agri-food products to European markets. The results obtained by generalised method of moments (GMM) panel model estimations suggest that factor endowments and distance are mainly negatively related to IIT, while product differentiation was found not to foster two-way trade of quality-differentiated goods. All model runs show a negative relationship between productivity as well as foreign direct investment and IIT.

This paper reviews the application of New Institutional Economics (NIE) theoretical assumptions and the way they relate to value chain governance and are moderated by traceability and information technology. Through literature review, NIE assumptions are examined by comparing how they are partially mitigated by traceability. The effect of these mitigations is realised in the readjustment of value chain governance typologies to suit lean and more competitive and visible value chains. The findings are based on the fact that information asymmetry, bounded rationality and behavioural uncertainty have given rise to incomplete contracts, especially in the agri-food sectors of most developing economies. Supply chain actors in this sector have the constant burden of assurance in ascertaining that credence goods remain authentically safe. The moderating effect of traceability is therefore proposed to reduce these uncertainties and is as such a form of assurance to promote both a holistic approach in compliance with standards and a seamless mechanism for product and process integration. However, this moderating effect, despite being novel in the value chain governance discourse, needs to be empirically ascertained. The novelty of this paper is based on the agricultural development agenda of developing economies in the light of the discourse on market-oriented...

In recent years, there has been a rapid growth in new type, direct and short supply chains (SSC) Hungary, and the markets have proved to be globalisation-resilient, keeping their market share from sales of fast-moving consumer goods. We conducted a consumer and producer survey to identify the most important expectations and experiences about markets in Hungary. We applied a service quality model (SERVQUAL) to measure the consumers’ and producers’ opinions and satisfaction of Hungarian markets. A warning result of our study is that vendors estimate their level of service above that of the consumers’ experiences which means that, in spite of the direct communication, they do not have an accurate understanding of their customers’ requirements. Our surveys also showed that there is a substantial deficiency between the services expected and experienced at markets in all dimensions (environment, service, convenience and produce) that influence the choice of retail channel. The most important dimension proved to be produce quality which should thus remain in the focus of market developments. In recent years, new trends in urban local food movements have started to emerge in Hungary which could not be detected at the time of our survey (2012). Thus we intend to extend...