Consumers preferences for dairy-alternative beverage using home-scan data in Catalonia

The changing lifestyles and the growing health concerns towards the negative impact of the saturated fatty acids originating from animals has increased consumers’ preferences for dairy-alternative products. These products belong to the food and beverage classification that is similar to certain types of dairy-based products in terms of texture and flavor, and has similar nutritional benefits. In this context, we seek to identify the willingness to pay (WTP) for the most important attributes that consumers take into account when purchasing the dairy-alternative drinks. A revealed preference discrete choice experiment was carried out using home-scan data belonging to ©Kantar Worldpanel (Barcelona, Spain) regarding the consumption of dairy-alternative drinks in Catalonia (Spain) in 343 households. Furthermore, factors that affect the purchasing frequency of this type of product were analyzed through the Poisson and negative binomial models. Results showed that price was the major driving factor, followed by the original non-dairy beverage flavor attribute. The original non-dairy beverage flavor compared to other added ingredients and tastes showed higher WTP when purchasing the non-dairy alternative. Marketing strategies should promote products by focusing on the “original” and “pure” version of the product without additional ingredients, or through reduction of the undesirable compounds if they exist in these kinds of beveragesPostprint (published version

Policy impact on technical efficiency of Spanish olive farms located in Less Favored Area

Most of Spanish olive farms are concentrated in Less-Favoured Areas (LFA) with the majority of producer areas are under Objective 1 of the EU Regional Policy. The EU has long recognized such distinctive characteristics of those holdings with a specific support measures aiming to prevent the abandonment of olive groves as well as to support sustainable development of this sector. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of LFA payment on the olive farms technical efficiency. Two sample farms located in LFA (63 farms receiving LFA payment support and 99 farms do not) have been observed from 2000 to 2004. A stochastic frontier production has been used. Results indicate that LFA payment, age of manager, tenure regimes of land, workforce composition and farm size affect efficiency levels. The LFA payment coefficient indicates a significant negative impact on the technical efficiency of Spanish olive farms. The farms that not receive the LFA payment has a technical efficiency rate 0.15 percentage units upper compared to those that receive this payment. Thus, the payment policy could decreases farms technical efficiency which could represents a handicap for farms economic survival and its persistence in the long term period.LFA payment, olive farm, technical efficiency, Production Economics, Productivity Analysis, Q180, D210,

Butchers’ preferences for rabbit meat; AHP Pairwise comparisons versus a LIKERT scale valuation

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What to use? Technological or traditional tools for documents’ correction? The students decide

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Policy impact on technical efficiency of Spanish olive farms located in less favored area

Most of Spanish olive farms are concentrated in Less-Favoured Areas (LFA) with the majority of producer areas are under Objective 1 of the EU Regional Policy. The EU has long recognized such distinctive characteristics of those holdings with a specific support measures aiming to prevent the abandonment of olive groves as well as to support sustainable development of this sector. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of LFA payment on the olive farms technical efficiency. Two sample farms located in LFA (63 farms receiving LFA payment support and 99 farms do not) have been observed from 2000 to 2004. A stochastic frontier production has been used. Results indicate that LFA payment, age of manager, tenure regimes of land, workforce composition and farm size affect efficiency levels. The LFA payment coefficient indicates a significant negative impact on the technical efficiency of Spanish olive farms. The farms that not receive the LFA payment has a technical efficiency rate 0.15 percentage units upper compared to those that receive this payment. Thus, the payment policy could decreases farms technical efficiency which could represents a handicap for farms economic survival and its persistence in the long term period.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

Effects of policy instruments on farm investments and production decisions in the Spanish cop sector

Our paper asses the impacts of the partially decoupled (PD) scheme, implemented during the 1990s and first half of the 2000s in the framework of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), on on-farm investment as well as on other production decisions. The Spanish COP sector was taken as a case study due to its economic and political relevance. The empirical analysis is applied on farm-level data from the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN), observed from 2000 to 2004, based on. We use a reduced-form application of the dual model of investment under uncertainty and a system of censored and non censored equations is estimated. PD payments are found to increase short-run production and to generate a statically significant increase in the investment in farm assets. Results also show the importance of assessing the effects of PD payments in a dynamic framework as the one applied in this paper.farm investments, Common Agricultural Policy, decoupling, production., Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Meta-analysis of consumers’ willingness to pay for sustainable food products

Consumers are demanding products with high sustainable standards and have increasingly paid attention to the wider ethical issues and sustainable food products. This research helps to broaden the study of WTP for sustainable food products from a broad area, including different sustainable attributes simultaneously, by extracting data from the previous literature using a meta-analysis. The main objective of this study is twofold: firstly, to synthesize consumers’ WTP studies regarding sustainable food products; and secondly, to measure the average WTP towards sustainable food products worldwide and their heterogeneity.Postprint (author's final draft

Subsidies and technical efficiency: An application of stochastic frontier and Random-effect Tobit models to LFA Spanish olive farms

The most of Spanish olive farms are concentrated in Less-Favoured Areas (LFA) with the majority of producer areas are under Objective 1 of the EU Regional Policy. The EU has long recognized such distinctive characteristics of those holdings with a specific support measures aiming to prevent the abandonment of olive groves as well as to support sustainable development of this sector. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of LFA payment on the olive farms technical efficiency. Two sample farms located in LFA (63 farms receiving LFA payment support and 99 farms do not) have been observed from 2000 to 2004. A stochastic frontier production and Random-effect Tobit models have been used. Results indicate that LFA payment, age of manager, workforce composition and farm size affect efficiency levels. The LFA payment coefficient indicates a significant negative impact on the technical efficiency of Spanish olive farms. Farms that not receive LFA payment has a technical efficiency rate 0.15 percentage units upper compared to those that receive this payment.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Meta-analysis of consumers' willingness to pay for sustainable food products

There is a continuous increasing number of studies dealing with consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) price premiums for sustainable food products. This research focused on a broad area of sustainable food products, including different sustainable attributes using a meta-analysis of 80 worldwide studies. Overall average WTP was estimated using the forest plot, showing the existence of a high level of heterogeneity. The publication bias was also verified using the funnel plot and Egger’s test. Finally, the subgroup analysis and meta-regression were applied to classify the source of heterogeneity. The results suggest that the overall WTP a premium for sustainability (in percentage terms) is 29.5% on average. Furthermore, gender, region, sustainable attributes and food categories influence the average WTP estimates and their heterogeneity. Results also indicate that the WTP estimate conducted by hypothetical approach is higher than non-hypothetical one due to hypothetical bias. Results also highlight that Asian WTP estimates, in percentage terms, are higher than those obtained in America and similar to those from Europe. In addition, positive WTP estimates are shown independent of the food categories, region or methods. This outcome denotes the presence of great market potential for sustainable products worldwide, which can provide a reference for relevant stakeholders to better understand market trends and the government to give more support to sustainable policies.Postprint (published version

Duration analysis to analyze factors leading wine and processed meat agro-industries to abandon their activities: policy implications.

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