Th e world economic crisis that, since 2008 has also struck the real economy, cannot be attributed only to the United States bubble which in 2007 involved the mortgage credit market, but it is the result of a series of factors among which the imbalance of the fi nancial market, of the public accounts of the main economies and the real sector. Also agriculture, which has always been considered an anti-cyclic sector, has seen a strong slowdown with a plunge in the trade fl ows. Th is paper analyses the changes which happened to the competitive position in the world market of some Mediterranean countries and of France, Italy, Spain and Turkey in particular trying, moreover, to understand the vulnerability of the countries belonging to the EU concerning their integration into an economic and monetary union. Th e results show how much the crisis has involved all the countries bringing, on the whole, a reduction of the competitive potential in the international market which has been less strong in Turkey, the country characterized by a low per capita income and a low public debt. It can be seen, in particular, how the sectors with a strongest commercial specialization have showed a better resistance to the pressure of the recessive trend.

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In this study, different capacity laying hen farms in Afyon province, which are of a considerable importance in the laying hen farming in Turkey, were compared in the terms of performance, including feed consumption, production cost and profitability per chick and egg and the most profitable farm size was determined. Data were obtained by conducting a questionnaire research with 75 farmers. Laying hen farms were divided into three groups according to their sizes and were analyzed accordingly. It was found that higher capacity farms had a higher egg yield and a better feed efficiency. It was also found that farms with a higher capacity were advantageous in terms of the technical and economic criteria. Results showed that as farm capacity increased, production cost per hen decreased and net profit per hen increased. It was found that profit margin was negative for group I and positive for group II and III, and profit margin increased as the farm capacity increased.

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