Agricultural Economics, 2022 (vol. 68), issue 6
Break-even point analysis for milk production - Selected EU countriesOriginal Paper
Jan Syrůček, Luděk Bartoň, Jiří Burdych
Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2022, 68(6):199-206 | DOI: 10.17221/40/2022-AGRICECON 
Unstable conditions in the milk market in the Czech Republic (CR) and in the European Union (EU), mainly due to volatility of milk prices, are increasing pressure on dairy farmers to maximise production at the lowest possible production costs. Break-even point (BEP) analysis is a useful tool in dairy herd management for determining minimum requirements for profitability. BEP values for milk yield and milk price were calculated based on data obtained from 95 dairy farms in the CR. BEP values were estimated also for another eight EU countries based upon production and cost data from the EU Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN). With the milk price ranging...
Implementation of quality improvements and innovations in agricultural enterprisesOriginal Paper
Dagmar Škodová Parmová, Jana Novotná
Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2022, 68(6):207-218 | DOI: 10.17221/410/2021-AGRICECON
This article deals with the implementation of innovations and quality improvements into operations of mainly small and medium-sized enterprises and family farms in the Czech Republic. The aim is to improve the competitiveness of production in internal, European, and global markets, as well as in the context of optimising the settings and recommendations for new subsidies within the Common Agricultural Policy for the forthcoming programming period. The dependence of the use of various forms of innovation in relation to financial crises was investigated, as well as the general (proactive vs. reactive) attitude to innovation, and also mutual...
Making a Markowitz portfolio with agricultural commodity futuresOriginal Paper
Dejan Živkov, Suzana Balaban, Marijana Joksimović
Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2022, 68(6):219-229 | DOI: 10.17221/78/2022-AGRICECON
This paper constructs a minimum-variance portfolio of six agricultural futures. We make a full sample analysis as well as a pre-COVID and COVID examination. Using Markowitz portfolio optimisation, we find that soybean futures have the highest share (31%) in the full sample portfolio because it has the lowest variance. Both soybean oil and rice futures have the second highest weight in the full sample portfolio, in an amount of 24%, because soybean oil has the second lowest variance, whereas rice has, by far, the lowest average correlation with other agricultural futures. Soybean oil has the highest share of 35% in the pre-COVID period, whereas rice...
The role of strategic innovation activities in creating Spanish agriculture companies' innovativenessOriginal Paper
Maciej Zastempowski, Szymon Cyfert
Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2022, 68(6):230-238 | DOI: 10.17221/66/2022-AGRICECON
The aim of this study is to identify strategic innovation activities that influence the product and process innovativeness of Spanish agriculture companies. From a theoretical perspective, according to the Oslo Manual, strategic innovation activities can be divided into five key groups. Based on a dataset including 874 firms covered by the 2014 edition of the Community Innovation Survey (CIS), we examine the role of different forms of strategic innovation activities used for the introduction of product and process innovations. Using the logit regression model and marginal effects, we found evidence of a relationship between the strategic activities...