Technical and scale efficiency of PGI bean farms in Greece

Karagiannis, G., University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki; Melfou, K., Technological Education Inst. of Western Macedonia, Kozani

Technical and scale efficiency of PGI bean farms in Greece

2015

Karagiannis, G., University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki (Greece) | Melfou, K., Technological Education Inst. of Western Macedonia, Kozani (Greece)

In the EU during the last decade, interest has risen for both consumers and producers in Food Quality Schemes for agricultural products and foodstuffs. For producers, the appeal lies in the benefits associated with the collective reputation of quality that characterizes labels linked to geographical origin. This paper obtained estimates of technical and scale inefficiencies of PGI bean farms in Greece by applying the DEA methodology. The main part of the divergence from the efficient frontier is more due to inadequate use of inputs and less because farms are not operating at the optimal size. The vast majority of the farms in the sample achieved technical efficiency scores in the range of 70–100% and scale efficiency scores in the range of 80–100%. Average technical efficiency is lower than average scale efficiency which means that a larger segment of overall inefficiency is due to producing below the frontier than to operating at an inefficient scale.

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