Efficiency of Pig Production in the Czech Republic and in an International Context

Abstract

This study presents a comparison of the performance and the ranking of pork producers in 16 countries over the period 2012–2017. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to make the ranking and identify the best practices among the involved countries (“peers”). For the DEA analysis, the output is aggregated into the category Carcass meat production in sow/year/kg, the inputs into Feed costs, Other variable costs, Labor costs, Depreciation and finance costs. In the first round of evaluation, only Brazil, the USA and The Netherlands were designated as peers. Significant differences between the highest-ranking values (1) and the lowest-ranking values (0.709) showed greater differences between European and non-European pork manufacturers. To get more European countries among the peers, non-European countries the USA and Brazil were excluded from the second round of evaluation. The second round of evaluation indicated that Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain are efficient producers with regard to the given inputs. The ratings of Germany, Italy and France are close to one (with differences of less than 4%); therefore, these countries can also be classified as efficient units. The identification of peers among selected EU producers represents “best practices” in the field.