Supply Chain Analysis of Fresh Fruit and Vegetables in Germany

With a population of 82.5 million, the German market is the largest in the EU and therefore of special interest for the trade partners. Despite an unsatisfying economic development in the last years (lowest GDP growth in the EU and rising unemployment, see Table 9 in the annex) Germany is still a very attractive market with well funded consumers. Although agriculture has a small and declining contribution to the country?s gross domestic product, in the wider definition of the agribusiness, it is still one of the most important sectors with regard to turnover and employment. Taking consumers? expenditure for food as a proxy for the total turnover of the agribusiness yields a figure of 240 billion – in 2003, nearly as much as the turnover of the car industry in Germany. In total, 4.5 million people are employed in the agribusiness, which is 11.6% of Germany?s total labour force. Among agricultural markets, the market of fruit and vegetables is of special interest for the trade with Mediterranean countries and also of special importance for the food industry and the food consumption. In 2003 consumers? expenditure for fresh fruit and vegetables were more than 10 billion ?. The processing industry of fruit and vegetables generated another 6.5 billion – turnover, demonstrating the importance of fruit and vegetables in Germany. Bearing in mind that the self sufficiency ratios for fruit and vegetables in Germany are low (13% respectively 50%), the extent of market opportunities for the Mediterranean countries become obvious. Against this background it is the objective of this report to analyse the supply chain of fresh fruit and vegetables in Germany. In the second chapter the current market situation is briefly presented with regard to production, consumption and trade in Germany. Other aspects covered in this chapter are the demographic structure in Germany, important consumer trends and food quality issues. The third chapter is devoted in depth to the analysis of the supply chains for both fruit and vegetables. In this chapter the different actors and market channels are described with regard to their task and importance in the supply chain. In the fourth chapter the overall institutional structure is analysed. After the conclusions in the fifth chapter extensive tables and figures can be found in the annex. --

Bewertung von Landschaftsfunktionen mit Choice Experiments

The first application of choice experiments as an environmental valuation method in Germany clearly demonstrates the potential of this method for the valuation of agriculture's multifunctionality. Choice experiments are a reasonable enhancement of the conjoint analysis as they are capable of calculating the theoretically correct welfare measures in the form of implicit prices. In combination with business and ecological models this allows for the comprehensive valuation of agriculture's multifunctionality in the sense, that in addition to the supply or cost side of land use scenarios the demand or benefit side is accounted for. In this study the integrated ecological and economical valuation of land use scenarios was demonstrated for two different scenarios. The welfare changes for the regional population due to changes in the quality or quantity of several landscape functions like drinking water quality, biodiversity, food production and landscape aesthetics were calculated. The inclusion of both supply and demand in this cost-benefit study is an important step forward for the development of sustainable land use concepts.choice experiments, environmental valuation, multifunctional agriculture, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Supply Chain Analysis of Fresh Fruit and Vegetables in Germany

With a population of 82.5 million, the German market is the largest in the EU and therefore of special interest for the trade partners. Despite an unsatisfying economic development in the last years (lowest GDP growth in the EU and rising unemployment, see Table 9 in the annex) Germany is still a very attractive market with well funded consumers. Although agriculture has a small and declining contribution to the country's gross domestic product, in the wider definition of the agribusiness, it is still one of the most important sectors with regard to turnover and employment. Taking consumers' expenditure for food as a proxy for the total turnover of the agribusiness yields a figure of 240 billion - in 2003, nearly as much as the turnover of the car industry in Germany. In total, 4.5 million people are employed in the agribusiness, which is 11.6% of Germany's total labour force. Among agricultural markets, the market of fruit and vegetables is of special interest for the trade with Mediterranean countries and also of special importance for the food industry and the food consumption. In 2003 consumers' expenditure for fresh fruit and vegetables were more than 10 billion €. The processing industry of fruit and vegetables generated another 6.5 billion - turnover, demonstrating the importance of fruit and vegetables in Germany. Bearing in mind that the self sufficiency ratios for fruit and vegetables in Germany are low (13% respectively 50%), the extent of market opportunities for the Mediterranean countries become obvious. Against this background it is the objective of this report to analyse the supply chain of fresh fruit and vegetables in Germany. In the second chapter the current market situation is briefly presented with regard to production, consumption and trade in Germany. Other aspects covered in this chapter are the demographic structure in Germany, important consumer trends and food quality issues. The third chapter is devoted in depth to the analysis of the supply chains for both fruit and vegetables. In this chapter the different actors and market channels are described with regard to their task and importance in the supply chain. In the fourth chapter the overall institutional structure is analysed. After the conclusions in the fifth chapter extensive tables and figures can be found in the annex

Umweltgüter und ihre Bewertung: Möglichkeiten und Grenzen des Benefit Transfers

Der Beitrag untersucht die Möglichkeiten und Grenzen einer kosten- und zeiteffizienten Methodik zur Bewertung von Umweltgütern. Diese als Benefit Transfer (BT) bezeichnete Methodik ermittelt Umweltgüterwerte für einen Politikort  durch Werteübertragungen von einem Studienort. Ein Literaturüberblick zeigt, dass die empirische Validität des BTs gering ist, Transferfehler von über 400%  auftreten  können und die Kriterien für einen erfolgreichen Einsatz nur ansatzweise identifiziert sind. Ein erstes bundesdeutsches Anwendungsbeispiel des BT in zwei  hessischen Gemeinden zur Bewertung der regionalen Artenvielfalt auf Basis kontingenter Bewertungsbefragungen wird vorgestellt. Aufgrund der Ähnlichkeiten  des  Bewertungsgutes, wichtiger soziodemographischer Variablen und des Umweltbewusstseins zwischen den Gemeinden kann im Unterschied zu vielen internationalen Studien die statistische Zulässigkeit des BTs bestätigt werden. Die resultierenden Transferfehler sind gering und zeigen eine Vorzüglichkeit des Transfers von Bewertungsfunktionen (8%) im Vergleich zum direkten Transfer von Mittelwerten (19%) an. Demnach ist der BT geeignet, vereinfachte Umweltbewertungen auch in der Bundesrepublik durchzuführen

Bewertung von Landschaftsfunktionen mit Choice Experiments

The first application of choice experiments as an environmental valuation method in Germany clearly demonstrates the potential of this method for the valuation of agriculture's multifunctionality. Choice experiments are a reasonable enhancement of the conjoint analysis as they are capable of calculating the theoretically correct welfare measures in the form of implicit prices. In combination with business and ecological models this allows for the comprehensive valuation of agriculture's multifunctionality in the sense, that in addition to the supply or cost side of land use scenarios the demand or benefit side is accounted for. In this study the integrated ecological and economical valuation of land use scenarios was demonstrated for two different scenarios. The welfare changes for the regional population due to changes in the quality or quantity of several landscape functions like drinking water quality, biodiversity, food production and landscape aesthetics were calculated. The inclusion of both supply and demand in this cost-benefit study is an important step forward for the development of sustainable land use concepts

MEASUREMENT OF ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY IN THE PRODUCTION OF RICE IN BANGLADESH - A TRANSLOG STOCHASTIC COST FRONTIER ANALYSIS

A Translog stochastic cost frontier has been estimated simultaneously with the economic inefficiency effect model using maximum likelihood for different rice crops. To estimate farm-specific economic efficiencies, single estimation of Translog cost frontier has also been done. Different cost components and their interactions are found to have different impacts on the stochastic cost frontier for different rice crops. The study reveals that there are significant economic inefficiency effect in the production of all rice crops and extension contact has negative impact on the economic inefficiency effect for all rice crops whereas experience has negative impact on the economic inefficiency effect for Boro and Aman rice. For Aus rice, education has positive impact on the economic inefficiency effect. The mean economic efficiencies estimated from Translog cost frontiers for Boro, Aus, and Aman rice are respectively 80%, 60% and 74%. The study also reveals that without change of output the production cost of Boro, Aus and Ainan can be reduced by 20%, 40% and 26%, respectively

IMPACT OF FARM-SPECIFIC FACTORS ON THE TECHNICAL INEFFICIENCY OF PRODUCING RICE IN BANGALDESH

The rice production of Bangladesh has been investigated using a Cobb-Douglas stochastic production function which incorporates a model for the technical inefficiency effects. Farm level primary data collected by stratified random sampling technique are used for this study. The factors identified in the stochastic production frontiers which are responsible for the increase of production are extension service, farm size, bullock power, age and experience. Seed, fertilizer, human labour and irrigation cost were identified as important factors for the increase of production for only Boro rice and were not important factors for Aus and Aman rice crops. The models for the technical inefficiency effects in the Cobb-Douglas stochastic production frontiers include the farm-specific factors age, education, experience, extension contact and farm size. The factors which influence the technical inefficiency effects are identified by simultaneous estimations of stochastic production frontiers and technical inefficiency effect models for different rice crops. The study reveals that the impacts of age,, experience, extension contact and farm size on the technical inefficiency effects are significantly negative which means that technical inefficiency effects decrease significantly with the increase in the magnitudes of these factors. The study also indicates that there are significant technical inefficiency effects in the production of all rice crops and the random component of the inefficiency effects explains that a significant portion of the difference between the observed output and the maximum production frontier output is caused by differences in farmers' levels of technical efficiency