--Introduction. Agricultural cooperatives play an important socio-economic role in European (EU) countries, especially in the fresh fruit and vegetable sector. For this reason, in an economic perspective, the measurement of their efficiency has become an area of investigation which attracts great interest. Given that Spain and Italy are the biggest producers of fresh fruits and vegetables, the aim of this paper was to recognize the evolution of their technical efficiency. Materials and methods. Performance analysis in the economic field is rather controversial. Following Parkan (2002), it is possible to classify three main approaches to measure performance: index numbers; frontier methods and the non-parametric approaches. In this paper, efficiency was evaluated by applying the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique considering two separate frontiers. Through the AIDA database for Italian agricultural cooperatives and the SABI database for Spanish cooperatives, two different sets of 81 and 106 firms, respectively belonging to the fruit and vegetable sector, were selected over a five-year period (2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005). Results. The analysis of the DEA results underlines the higher ability of Italian cooperatives to calibrate and optimize the inputs, and to maximize the results (technical efficiency), as well as the ability of Spanish cooperatives to exploit scale economies. Conclusions. Over the period taken into consideration, the average value of global technical efficiency decreased for Spanish as well as Italian cooperatives. In the case of Spanish cooperatives, this situation is due to the loss of ability to calibrate and optimize the inputs, even if the considered firms reveal ability to develop scale economies. In the case of Italian cooperatives, the results reveal the substantial firm technical efficiency, even if scale inefficiency undermines the global efficiency. Spain / Italy / fruits / vegetables / cooperatives / economic analysis / efficiencyEfficacité technique du secteur des fruits et légumes frais : une étude comparée des sociétés italiennes et espagnoles.Résumé --Introduction. Les coopératives agricoles jouent un rôle socio-économique important dans les pays européens (UE) et, en particulier, dans le secteur des fruits et légumes frais. Pour cette raison, d'un point de vue économique, la mesure de son efficacité est devenue un champ d'investigation qui suscite un grand intérêt. L'Espagne et l'Italie étant les plus grands producteurs de fruits et légumes frais de l'UE, mous avons cherché à étudier l'évolution de leur efficacité technique. Matériel et méthodes. L'évaluation des performances dans le domaine économique est plutôt controversée. Selon Parkan (2002), il est possible d'envisager trois approches principales pour mesurer ces performances : utilisation de nombres-indices ; méthodes des frontières, et méthodes non paramétriques. Dans cet article, l'efficacité du secteur a été évaluée à l'aide d'une analyse d'enveloppement des données (AED) en considérant deux frontières...

Paper prepared for presentation at the 113 th EAAE Seminar "A resilient European food industry and food chain in a challenging world"

No abstract

Italian pulses production has sharply fallen since the middle of the last century and the role that pulses played has diminished at both the agricultural and food levels. This is the result of several factors that are analysed in this article, among which the most important can be identified in the low profitability compared to other crops, mainly cereals, the historic collapse of domestic consumption and a strong competition from foreign producers. Conversely, in recent years, different signals appear to delineate a possible framework for recovery for legumes: the first of these is represented by the recent reversal trend in domestic consumption, due to healthy reasons and a fall in meat consumption. The favourable trend of organic consumption can also be considered as a positive factor for pulses. However, the focus point for pulses future perspective is the recent development of the European policy (2014-2020) that planned several actions in support of them, such as coupled payments and the provisions of greening rules. These policies aim to support the training effort needed to bring home to producers the importance of legumes in a proper crop rotation that maintains soil fertility and therefore better yields and profitability. In light of this and based on the general crisis in cereals prices, it is possible to be reasonably optimistic regarding the future of the legumes sector in Italy.

The study analyzes and explains on-farm diversification in Emilia-Romagna, a productive and agriculturally intensified region in Italy. The purpose was to contribute to knowledge gaps on the adoption of different diversification strategies in relation to farming system. Based on farm-level census data gathered by the Italian National Institute of Statistics during the sixth general agricultural census, two on-farm diversification pathways were investigated: deepening and broadening. The farmer’s decision to diversify activities and the identification of diversification pathways were analyzed using logit and multinomial logit models. The results show that arable farms adopt broadening strategies, intensive farms opt for deepening ones, and specialized adopters of quality schemes combine both strategies. Furthermore, in contrast to the existing research, the study highlights that intensive farms are more likely than arable farms to diversify. Finally, the findings provide insights to improve analyses in the context of policy and regional strategic support.