IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/agecon/v49y2018i2p203-212.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Efficiency in wine grape production: comparing long†established and newly developed regions of South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Jenifer Piesse
  • Beatrice Conradie
  • Colin Thirtle
  • Nick Vink

Abstract

Efficiency, partly based on technology, is central to international competitiveness. This article applies a stochastic frontier inefficiency model to a panel of 77 wine grape farms in South Africa between 2005 and 2015 and allows the comparison of efficiency levels for the old established wine regions with those of newer entrants. Thus, we investigate whether experience plus first choice of location matters more than the follower's advantage of newer technology. In all regions, a greater share of permanent labor and increased supervision raised efficiency, while more inorganic fertilizer and less irrigation has the opposite effect. Innovations in trellising had insignificant effects (except in the old regions) but not replacing old vines reduced efficiency. However, a higher proportion of red varietals also lowered efficiency in the old regions due to a fall in the price of red wine as these farmers continued to concentrate on quality reds. The new regions compensated for falling prices by increasing crop size with irrigation and fertilizer and extending the area planted, but with less concern for quality. This appears to be more successful in efficiency terms, but as international demand for quality wine increases it may be a poor long†term strategy.

Suggested Citation

  • Jenifer Piesse & Beatrice Conradie & Colin Thirtle & Nick Vink, 2018. "Efficiency in wine grape production: comparing long†established and newly developed regions of South Africa," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 49(2), pages 203-212, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:agecon:v:49:y:2018:i:2:p:203-212
    DOI: 10.1111/agec.12409
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12409
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/agec.12409?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Greg Seymour, 2017. "Women's empowerment in agriculture: Implications for technical efficiency in rural Bangladesh," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 48(4), pages 513-522, July.
    2. R.F. Townsend & J. Kirsten & N. Vink, 1998. "Farm size, productivity and returns to scale in agriculture revisited: a case study of wine producers in South Africa," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 19(1-2), pages 175-180, September.
    3. Nchinda, Valentine P. & Villano, Renato A. & Hadley, David & Morales, Emilio L., 2016. "Performance of smallholder minisett seed yam farm enterprises in Cameroon," African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, African Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 11(4), pages 1-15, December.
    4. Vanya Slavchevska, 2015. "Gender differences in agricultural productivity: the case of Tanzania," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 46(3), pages 335-355, May.
    5. Mengistu Assefa Wendimu & Arne Henningsen & Tomasz Gerard Czekaj, 2017. "Incentives and moral hazard: plot level productivity of factory-operated and outgrower-operated sugarcane production in Ethiopia," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 48(5), pages 549-560, September.
    6. Barros, Carlos Pestana & Santos, J.C. Gomes, 2007. "Comparing the Productive Efficiency of Cooperatives and Private Enterprises: The Portuguese Wine Industry as a Case Study," Journal of Rural Cooperation, Hebrew University, Center for Agricultural Economic Research, vol. 35(2), pages 1-14.
    7. Fengxia Dong & David A. Hennessy & Helen H. Jensen & Richard J. Volpe, 2016. "Technical efficiency, herd size, and exit intentions in U.S. dairy farms," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 47(5), pages 533-545, September.
    8. Donald F. Larson & Keijiro Otsuka & Tomoya Matsumoto & Talip Kilic, 2014. "Should African rural development strategies depend on smallholder farms? An exploration of the inverse-productivity hypothesis," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 45(3), pages 355-367, May.
    9. Kodde, David A & Palm, Franz C, 1986. "Wald Criteria for Jointly Testing Equality and Inequality Restriction s," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 54(5), pages 1243-1248, September.
    10. Beatrice Conradie & Graham Cookson & Colin Thirtle, 2006. "Efficiency And Farm Size In Western Cape Grape Production: Pooling Small Datasets," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 74(2), pages 334-343, June.
    11. Aparicio, Juan & Borras, Fernando & Pastor, Jesus T. & Vidal, Fernando, 2013. "Accounting for slacks to measure and decompose revenue efficiency in the Spanish Designation of Origin wines with DEA," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 231(2), pages 443-451.
    12. Tóth, József & Gál, Péter, 2014. "Is the New Wine World more efficient? Factors influencing technical efficiency of wine production," Studies in Agricultural Economics, Research Institute for Agricultural Economics, vol. 116(2), pages 1-5, August.
    13. Battese, G E & Coelli, T J, 1995. "A Model for Technical Inefficiency Effects in a Stochastic Frontier Production Function for Panel Data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 325-332.
    14. Aigner, Dennis & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Peter, 1977. "Formulation and estimation of stochastic frontier production function models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 21-37, July.
    15. Asekenye, Cresenia & Bravo-Ureta, Boris E. & Deom, Mike & Kidula, Nelson & Okello, David Kalule & Okoko, Nasambu & Puppala, Naveen, 2016. "Productivity gaps among groundnut farmers in Kenya and Uganda: A stochastic production frontier analysis," African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, African Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 11(2), pages 1-16.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Simon Akahoua N'cho & Monique Mourits & Jonne Rodenburg & Alfons Oude Lansink, 2019. "Inefficiency of manual weeding in rainfed rice systems affected by parasitic weeds," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 50(2), pages 151-163, March.
    2. Bravo-Ureta, Boris E. & Njuki, Eric & Palacios, Ana Claudia & Salazar, Lina, 2022. "Agricultural Productivity in El Salvador: A Preliminary Analysis," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 11984, Inter-American Development Bank.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ana MARTA-COSTA & Vitor MARTINHO & Micael SANTOS, 2017. "Productive Efficiency Of Portuguese Vineyard Regions," Regional Science Inquiry, Hellenic Association of Regional Scientists, vol. 0(2), pages 97-107, December.
    2. repec:ags:bdbjaf:258303 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Rouf, Abdur, 2015. "Conventional vs Natural Flood Control and Drainage Managements in a Tidal Coastal Zone: An Evaluation from a Productive Efficiency Perspective," 89th Annual Conference, April 13-15, 2015, Warwick University, Coventry, UK 256023, Agricultural Economics Society.
    4. Tom Kompas & Tuong Nhu Che & R. Quentin Grafton, 2004. "Technical efficiency effects of input controls: evidence from Australia's banana prawn fishery," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(15), pages 1631-1641.
    5. Andriakopoulos, Konstantinos & Ladas, Augoustinos & Andriakopoulos, Panagiotis, 2020. "Bank efficiency and leasing in U.S.A. banking system," MPRA Paper 112645, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Roy, Manish & Mazumder, Ritwik, 2016. "Technical Efficiency of Fish Catch in Traditional Fishing: A Study in Southern Assam," Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Rajarshi Majumder, vol. 5(1), pages 55-68.
    7. Francesco Aiello & Graziella Bonanno, 2013. "Profit and cost efficiency in the Italian banking industry (2006-2011)," Economics and Business Letters, Oviedo University Press, vol. 2(4), pages 190-205.
    8. Edward Ebo ONUMAH & Bernhard BRÜMMER & Gabriele HÖRSTGEN-SCHWARK, 2010. "Productivity of the hired and family labour and determinants of technical inefficiency in Ghana's fish farms," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 56(2), pages 79-88.
    9. Khor, Ling Yee & Zeller, Manfred, 2012. "Doubts on input quality: The effect of inaccurate fertilizer content on the estimation of production functions and technical efficiency," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126212, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    10. Goyal, S.K. & Suhag, K.S. & Pandey, U.K., 2006. "An Estimation of Technical Efficiency of Paddy Farmers in Haryana State of India," Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, vol. 61(1), pages 1-15.
    11. Tom Kompas, 2001. "Catch, Efficiency and Management: A Stochastic Production Frontier Analysis of the Australian Northern Prawn Fishery," International and Development Economics Working Papers idec01-8, International and Development Economics.
    12. Roberto Furesi & Fabio Madau & Pietro Pulina, 2013. "Technical efficiency in the sheep dairy industry: an application on the Sardinian (Italy) sector," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 1(1), pages 1-11, December.
    13. Bigerna, Simona & D’Errico, Maria Chiara & Polinori, Paolo, 2021. "Energy security and RES penetration in a growing decarbonized economy in the era of the 4th industrial revolution," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    14. Sumelius, John & Islam, K.M. Zahidul & Sipilainen, Timo, 2011. "Access to Microfinance: Does it Matter for Profit Efficiency Among Small Scale Rice Farmers in Bangladesh?," 2011 International Congress, August 30-September 2, 2011, Zurich, Switzerland 116067, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    15. Roengchai Tansuchat, 2023. "A Copula-Based Meta-Stochastic Frontier Analysis for Comparing Traditional and HDPE Geomembranes Technology in Sea Salt Farming among Farmers in Phetchaburi, Thailand," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-23, March.
    16. Prakash, Navendu & Singh, Shveta & Sharma, Seema, 2021. "Technological diffusion, banking efficiency and Solow's paradox: A frontier-based parametric and non-parametric analysis," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 534-551.
    17. Jara-Rojas, Roberto & Bravo-Ureta, Boris E. & Moreira, Victor H. & Diaz, Jose, 2012. "Natural Resource Conservation and Technical Efficiency from Small-scale Farmers in Central Chile," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126227, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    18. Bopp, Carlos & Jara-Rojas, Roberto & Bravo-Ureta, Boris & Engler, Alejandra, 2022. "Irrigation water use, shadow values and productivity: Evidence from stochastic production frontiers in vineyards," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 271(C).
    19. Lazović-Pita Lejla & Šćeta Lamija, 2021. "A Stochastic Frontier Approach to Measuring Inefficiency of Local Communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina," South East European Journal of Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 16(1), pages 18-29, June.
    20. Francisca Pacheco & Rafael Sánchez & Mauricio G. Villena, 2021. "Estimating local government efficiency using a panel data parametric approach: the case of Chilean municipalities," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(3), pages 292-314, January.
    21. Anup Kumar Bhandari & Pradip Maiti, 2007. "Efficiency of Indian Manufacturing Firms: Textile Industry as a Case Study," International Journal of Business and Economics, School of Management Development, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, vol. 6(1), pages 71-88, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:agecon:v:49:y:2018:i:2:p:203-212. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iaaeeea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.