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Fruits and vegetables form the basis of a nutritional diet for the population. In addition to the basic determinants, such as market prices and consumer income, other factors influence consumer demand.  This paper aims to investigate how the age and gender of consumers influence the demand for fruit and vegetables in different European countries. In this paper, the demand for fruit and vegetables is understood through the population’s preferences for fruit and vegetable consumption, i.e., the proportion of the population that prefers to consume fruit and vegetables five or more times a day. The paper uses data from Eurostat. Factor, cluster and correlation analyses were performed using the SPSS software. The results of the analyses showed that the gender significantly determines the demand for fruit and vegetables in favour of women. Regarding the effect of age, this determinant was positively correlated with the preference for 5FV consumption in most countries. Potential interventions to promote fruit and vegetable consumption should mainly target men aged 15–19 and 75+ in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Austria, Slovenia and Sweden, men aged 35–44 and 75+ in Croatia, Italy, Poland and Romania and women aged 15–19 and 55+ in Bulgaria and Romania, where their preference for 5FV was the lowest.

Considering the relevance of the agricultural sectors for the European countries' development, but also the volatile features of agriculture, with unforeseen risks induced by climate, ensuring durable economic progress is foremost for the companies. This paper aims to assess the associations of the key parties in corporate governance (directors, managers, advisers, and shareholders), employees and the independence level with the main outcomes and capacity/size of the European companies operating in agriculture, fishing, and aquaculture activities. Using a newly compiled and complex dataset of 3 184 active companies from Europe, provided by the ORBIS database, advanced modelling approaches were employed, based on the robust regression (RREG) and Gaussian Graphical Model (GGM). The main findings emphasised that: directors, managers, and advisors had a strong positive influence on the firms' size, boosting their turnover, and the shareholders' funds; advisors induced positive connections with the companies' liquidity; the number of employees exerted positive impacts on the firms' size and outcomes of these companies; the independence level exerted a negative impact on the firms' size and outcomes. Finally, specific measures must be addressed to primarily reconsider the number of directors and managers and the shareholders' participation in the ownership of these companies due to their unfavourable exerted effects.

Emerging economies often establish commodity futures markets to discover price signals, manage price risks and improve market integration, but establishing a futures market may not be feasible for agricultural perishables. In this study, we evaluated the function of the world’s first fresh fruit futures contract for apples. Combining partial cointegration with state-space modelling, we derived time-varying price discovery metrics for the apple futures market. Our findings revealed a limited and time-varying dominance of price discovery by the futures market, while a substantial share of price discovery occurred in the spot market. Moreover, poor convergence of disaggregated spot prices to the futures price suggests that commercial traders in the apple supply chain tended to focus more on the spot market than on the futures market. Thus, emerging economies should be cautious about the new establishment of futures markets for agricultural perishables. Future research using more specific data on the spot market may provide a better insight on the limited function of the futures market.

Agriculture is one of the main contributors to carbon emissions and is also significantly affected by changing climate. This article investigates the impacts of agricultural support on greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from agriculture in the European Union. Panel regression models were used to examine the influence of subsidies in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on reducing GHGs from agriculture. First, estimates show that direct agricultural subsidies encouraged agricultural-related carbon emissions. Second, the study concludes that the expansion of organic agriculture and the rural development expenditures contributed to emissions reduction in the member states. Finally, the CAP Health Check reform decreased while the Ciolos reform stimulated GHG emissions.

Advancing agricultural carbon emission efficiency and farmers’ income simultaneously is crucial for the sustainable progress of agriculture. Our study centered on 31 provinces and cities in China and investigated regional variances and the dynamic evolution aspects of coordinated development in farmers’ income and agricultural carbon emission efficiency, utilising panel data from 2005 to 2021. The analysis revealed the following trends: Firstly, China’s overall agricultural carbon emission efficiency was steadily increasing, mainly because of technological advancements. Secondly, the correlation between farmers’ income and agricultural carbon emission efficiency in China had notably improved from 0.318 to 0.775. Throughout the observation period, disparities in the levels of coordinated development were observed in various provinces with a diminishing fluctuation, indicating regional disparities as the primary instigator. Thirdly, the level of coordinated development highlighted positive clustering attributes, demonstrating an ‘east high, west low’ pattern; the evolution of coordinated development levels exhibited stability in maintaining the current status. This study holds significant value for developing countries in enhancing farmers’ income and agricultural carbon emission efficiency in a coordinated manner.

Political and security stability have the potential to support developing countries‘ efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goals, as this region is home to the majority of the global population. This study examines the impact of political and security stability and other factors on food security [as measured by the prevalence of undernourishment (PUN)] in developing countries. We analysed 2002–2020 data from 83 developing countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean, using the system General Method of Moment (sys-GMM). Our study indicates that political and security stability and the use of the internet can increase food security or reduce PUN in developing countries. Other factors contributed to an increase in PUN: the previous year’s PUN, the cereal import dependency ratio and the unemployment to total population ratio. Meanwhile, other factors have varying effects on the PUN in developing countries.

The main research objective of this study is to present the dynamics of land productivity changes in EU agriculture in the years 2012–2020 and evaluate the influence of direct subsidies received by farmers on land productivity. The source data for 2012–2020 are secondary and come from Eurostat. The research results were prepared for the entire European Union (EU-28), and divided into ‘old’ countries (EU-15) and ‘new’ countries (EU-13). The results were developed using the method of assessing convergence (in terms of differences in land productivity in individual countries) using the coefficient of variation and the relative index of changes in individual Member States in relation to the EU average over the period under study. Results showed that between 2012 and 2020, average land productivity in the EU increased by 7%. At the same time, differences in land productivity between EU countries decreased. The correlation analysis confirmed a statistically significant relationship between land productivity and the amount of direct payments per ha of agricultural land. Additionally, results of the correlation between productivity per 1 ha and the total area of agricultural land in EU countries confirmed the law of decreasing marginal productivity of land.

The dominant agricultural sector in Slovakia is crop production, with the majority of arable land dedicated to cultivating cereals (57%), followed by fodder crops (20%) and industrial crops (19%). Slovakia has technical and biophysical potential for expanding biomass production. However, it is crucial to identify optimal production practices, alternative costs, and environmental outputs. Farms become more vulnerable to the worldwide threat posed by climate change. Based on research, farmers can effectively mitigate the adverse effects of climate change by making necessary adjustments to their current farming techniques. Thus, by using an advanced tool like integrated farm models, farmers can evaluate and manage a range of risks related to their activities. This paper aims to present the application of integrated modelling frameworks at the farm level and propose a framework for studying the consequences of climate change through a scenario-based approach at the farm level. Integrated assessments provide new insights that complement those derived from more detailed assessments. Based on the model developed, the results of two research questions are provided. Since, from the viewpoint of the farmer, risk and unpredictability associated with lower yields are frequently the main causes of lower income, spatially explicit integrated modelling is applied, enabling economic optimisation of crop production on a selected farm with a focus on maximising net returns while considering biophysical parameters. The modelling results depict the distribution of selected crops on arable land and the most suitable management practices for crop production in terms of nitrogen application and irrigation utilisation. Additionally, we develop an integrated model proposing the estimation of the risk of yield variability and nitrogen emissions for three climate change scenarios for the simulated period of 2020–2100 on the model farm. In response to the problems posed by climate change, this integrated approach can assist evidence-based decision-making and sustainable agriculture practices.

To understand and promote the importance of business sustainability in agriculture as an important societal issue, one must use the circumstances to force modern-minded management to abandon the classical model of only complying with statutory obligations and to structure the knowledge to coordinate interdisciplinary approaches to ensuring sustainable innovation. The paper analyses the role of business sustainability in promoting sustainable innovation in agriculture. The study used a factor analysis applied to a sample of 183 companies (n₁ = 183) and qualitative research through focus groups (n₂ = 5). The main objective was to identify the factors influencing the innovated areas in relation to sustainability. The results of the factor analysis showed a six-factor solution: process approach, corporate social responsibility, quality management system, supply chain operation processes, demand for production, and employee performance.

Globalisation and reduced trade barriers have created a competitive business environment, requiring agri-food firms to adopt a new innovative perspective. This research study examines a network-based business model of a new venture offering services to avocado farmers and its potential impact on customer performance. A theoretical framework of a network-based business model in the agri-food sector was developed and implemented in the production of avocados. The Israeli agri-food firm, Green Fingers, was selected as the case study to analyse the value drivers of the network-based business model. The proposed business model can serve as a benchmark in evaluating other business models and developing practical strategies in the agri-food sector. The model is flexible, adaptable in meeting the evolving needs of customers and farmers, and applicable to other sectors. The model's building blocks emphasise the importance of networking and diffusing knowledge among key stakeholders, adapting to changing environments, maintaining environmental sustainability, collaborating with policymakers, and supporting farmers. The extended business model canvas may enhance the currently limited research on network-based business models in the agri-food sector from theoretical and empirical perspectives.

In this article, we present applied research in the field of price transmission modelling with the generalised additive model. In line with recent studies on nonlinear time series models for price transmission, we introduce a nonparametric technique of generalised additive modelling to provide evidence of nonlinear patterns in price linkages and compare the degree of nonlinearity in price transmission between feed maize and poultry product markets in the Visegrád Group countries. The results of our empirical approach contribute to knowledge about market competitiveness in the Visegrád Group countries and provide information to policymakers.

This article aims to highlight the importance of climate and environmental challenges for agricultural economics and policy. Empirical research based on the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method determined the average technical efficiency and scale efficiency of farms in the European Union in total and in economic size classes in the period 2004–2020. The results indicate that agriculture is generally characterised by high technical efficiency and scale efficiency. Analysis by economic size classes of farms, defined by the standard sum of their agricultural output, shows that the relationship between the scale of production and technical efficiency of farms is U-shaped. The highest technical efficiency and scale efficiency are characterised by small, large and very large farms economic classes. Economies of scale shift the burden of food production to large farms, which provide food security and are technically efficient but excessively burdensome for the climate and the environment. Small farms produce environmentally friendly food but on a small scale. Therefore, increasing the technical efficiency of medium-sized farms can contribute to more sustainable food production that meets both food security and climate and environmental objectives. The Common Agricultural Policy 2023–2027 provides greater access to financial support for moderate-scale farms and farms undertaking ecosystem restoration activities. This may affect the strength and direction of the relationship between farm scale and productivity, including technical efficiency.

Prior studies have noted the importance of measurement tools that track the contributions of the circular bioeconomy and other developments towards sustainable development. In this study, we examined the EU-27 as a whole and found that its circular bioeconomy, measured by the 41 indicators we used, generally progressed over the period 2004–2021. Research and development personnel and Persons employed in circular economy sectors were ranked as the most progressing indicators over the studied period, together with Patent applications to the European Patent Office, which supports the idea that the circular bioeconomy uses novel technologies and requires research to develop them.

This paper uses the global trade analysis project (GTAP) to evaluate the impact of grain export restrictions on world food security during the COVID-19 epidemic. The study found that export restrictions distort world market prices, which in turn distort consumption and production, harm the interests of consumers and farmers in some countries, and threaten food security. In this regard, maintaining the convenience of the food trade is the wise choice of all countries. It is necessary to tighten the World Trade Organization (WTO) disciplines related to export restrictions, strengthen global food security governance and jointly build a community with a shared future for mankind.

Primary sector, especially agricultural companies, have long been struggling with labour shortages and demographic trends as well as with negative age structure of employees. The article, therefore, aims to identify the organisational benefits and strategies of human resource management that will help ensure a generational change in selected agricultural companies in primary sectors. The data was obtained on the basis of quantitative research in 136 companies operating in the primary sector according to the CZ-NACE methodology. More than 75% of the enterprises assessed do not apply age management, the biggest obstacle being staffing shortage in the area of age management. The respondents see the main benefits in retaining key employees, improving motivation, increasing performance, and improving organisational climate. The article is limited by its focus on the specific primary sector, nevertheless, this topic is very important in its focus on Common Agricultural Policy at the level of individual companies in all countries of the European Union.

This paper tries to find out which precious metal futures are the best hedging tools for corn spot commodity, taking into account three different risk measures - variance (Var), value at risk (VaR), and conditional value at risk (CVaR). For computation purposes, we use an optimal dynamic conditional correlation (DCC) specification for every considered pair. Our findings indicate that portfolio with gold outperforms the other three precious metals (silver, platinum, and palladium) with respect to all three risk metrics. The reason for such findings is two-fold. First, gold has the lowest average dynamic correlation with corn (below 11%), and gold also has the lowest average risk of all precious metals. The second-best combination is corn-platinum, whereas the corn-silver pair gives the worst hedging results. This happens because silver has the highest average dynamic correlation with corn (14.5%), but more importantly, silver is the riskiest commodity, which makes this asset unsuitable for combining with corn. According to the results, the ratio between corn and gold in a two-asset portfolio should be about 27 : 73.

Galicia is one of Spain's leading regions regarding agricultural and livestock production. In the light of the COVID-19 crisis, the permeability to the economic shocks of these sectors led to an unprecedented recession, given the heterogeneity of their characteristics, resulting in widespread losses. The main objective of this article is to analyze the impact of COVID-19 in the agricultural and livestock sectors in Galicia and, at the same time, identify the degree of affectation in each of these sectors, determine the impact of the pandemic in each province and study the institutional responses to the COVID-19 crisis. For this purpose, financial analysis of these sectors will be carried out through a sample of 998 companies. The results show a variation in operating income of -16.41% in the agricultural sector and -9.15% in the livestock sector in Galicia, although they are mixed across the different provinces of the region. Despite the articulation of a network of public aids and the adoption of new commercialization strategies, there are sub-sectors with high losses, such as the ornamental plant industry and the subsector dedicated to the production of beef.

This paper aims to investigate the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on small family farms in Visegrad countries and to provide evidence of how they have responded and coped with the crisis. We conducted our investigation using an exploratory qualitative research design based on 86 semistructured in-depth interviews with owners or responsible managers, and explored the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on different areas of their businesses, such as human resources, supplier-customer relations, production, distribution channels or strategies, price of inputs and outputs and business models. Our findings showed that small family farms have been resilient in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Several negative impacts were identified, such as a decrease in sales due to the closure of accommodation and restaurant services, delays in the supply of inputs, and minor problems with the availability of workers, but those were perceived to be moderate. However, the COVID-19 pandemic created not only difficult challenges but also opportunities for small farms. Based on our findings, three main recommendations regarding the adaptability and resilience of family farms in Visegrad countries have been formulated: i) the importance of a diversification strategy, ii) selling through short supply chains, and iii) digitalisation of agriculture.

In recent years, progress has been made towards incorporating the sociocultural perspective in the assessment of ecosystem services (ES) to identify the relevant services according to the different needs and perceptions of the populations consulted. New sociocultural assessment methods are being explored to respond to this emerging line of research, without a generally accepted alternative being found thus far. Aiming to contribute to this line of research, this article proposes a new methodological approach for the sociocultural assessment of ES. The new methodological approach is based on combining two different measurement procedures: a traditional Likert scale and the Kano model. The case of ES provided by forests will be considered for its development and application. With the application of the proposed methodology, the sensitivity and consistency of sociocultural assessments of ES would be improved, and the development of longitudinal analysis would be facilitated.

Food surplus recovery is one of the priorities of modern society. Mass distribution allows one to reserve goods unsuitable for selling for organisations able to distribute them to people in need. This work contributes to this direction by considering a reward programme for donors. A methodology for supporting the cycle of the reallocation of the food surplus to people in need usingblockchain technology to support the traceability of the flows and to allow the exact evaluation of the rewards to be assigned to each retailer is described. A mathematical model is proposed for calculating the reward. An actual application of the methodology is also described.

The Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict significantly affected wheat production and its export from Ukraine, mainly during the war outbreak. Since both countries rank among the major global wheat producers, the warfare disrupted wheat supplies, hastily pushing the prices. Based on the analysed data, we carried out research using multilayer perceptron networks. The findings suggest the biggest price increase between February and March 2022, witnessing wheat prices at about 1 400 USD per t. We predict a decline to the pre-war values until the end of 2025, estimating its rates between 600 USD and 800 USD per t. This price slump may involve signing an agreement on unblocking Ukrainian seaports, which would restore wheat exports. Yet, our survey is confined to historical data, which do not suggest any dramatic event that would alarmingly sway wheat prices.

Understanding buying behaviour for sustainable products is important for food producers and distributors. This study aims to examine the effect of knowledge of the product, interest in sustainability, and characteristics of consumers on the frequency of buying sustainably produced butter using the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) model. In this study, two different types of butter were used, one produced by a well-known brand and the other by a less-known dairy. Data were collected through a structured online survey of 825 respondents from Poland. The research found that knowledge about the product and the sustainability-related product attributes does not positively influence the frequency of purchasing sustainable butter. The results indicate that consumers living in smaller towns, having higher incomes and smaller households, are more frequent buyers of sustainably produced butter.

Economic globalisation (EG) in developing countries has continued to increase over the last 40 years. EG has both beneficial and harmful impacts on all sectors, including agriculture. This paper aims to determine the impact of EG on agriculture in developing countries. This aim was met by conducting a systematic review (SR) of 64 papers from Scopus and Web of Science (WoS). EG has influenced various elements of agriculture in developing countries, including i) product, supply chain, food security, ii) trade, iii) economic, social, political element and environment and iv) technology and research and development (R&D). We propose several policies in this paper to maximise EG's positive impact while minimising its negative impact.

In this article, we explore multiscale extreme risk interdependence between four soft agricultural markets – coffee, cocoa, cotton and orange juice. Wavelet correlation and cross-correlation are used to investigate this interlink, and dynamic conditional Value at Risk is used to measure extreme risk. Wavelet correlation results suggest a very weak connection between the markets in the short-term and midterm horizons, which means that investors who operate in the short term or midterm do not have to apply hedging measures against extreme risk. However, the situation is different in the long term, where relatively high correlations are found on the highest wavelet scale in all pairs, except coffee–cocoa. Complementary cross-correlation analysis indicates a lead–lag relationship between the markets. The results are mostly in line with expectations, as bigger markets lead smaller markets. Only in the cases of cocoa–cotton and cocoa–orange juice does the opposite happen.

Globally, people started gravitating toward organic food as health consciousness rose. From the farm to the consumer's fork, organic food is produced using a comprehensive method. Organic farming has provided farmers and producers with many opportunities, but there are still difficulties concerning the cost of production and distribution. Due to environmental sustainability challenges, climate change, soil fertility, biological assortment, and consumer well-being, organic farming is attracting more attention than conventional farming. Organic farming can be done using standardised methods and has many common issues with conventional farming. Organic farming has some unique problems as well. With the right strategies, careful planning, and government assistance, many difficulties faced by farmers can be addressed. The downstream material flow of the supply chain, and in particular demand estimation, market price, and identifying customer segments, has been identified as a significant problem in organic farming. Massive losses have been incurred along with the entire supply chain a due to the inadequate demand estimation that has caused surpluses and shortages in the produce. A few farmers have resolved the cash flows and material information controlling problem. This article proposes various related hypotheses associated with identifying customer segments, forecasting demand for the product, and profitability as market price changes in the crop.

Sustainable intensification (SI) is a widely discussed concept that aims to increase agricultural production without harming the environment. This study assessed the process of SI that took place in the EU regions from 2004 to 2018 and the impact of structural and weather-related factors. In doing so, a single index based on DEA environmentally adjusted efficiency and kernel regression were applied to data from the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) Public Database and the Agri4Cast resource portal. The study found an overall positive trend of SI in the EU regions in which land and animal concentration had a significant impact on this process. Sun radiation, as the only significant weather variable, had a decreasing impact on efficiency due to potential droughts. The findings emphasise the need for political support for regions with a low degree of SI and for those particularly affected by climate change.

The escalation of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine had a detrimental effect on the global agricultural and food market and the price movements of essential commodities. In this study, we aim to investigate the effects of geopolitical risk on the prices of selected agricultural and food commodities using the linear and nonlinear ARDL (autoregressive distributed lag) model. Our results show evidence of the asymmetric impact of geopolitical risk on the prices of rapeseed, sugar, sunflower oil, and wheat. The findings also show no long-term link between geopolitical risk and corn, cotton, lumber, milk, oats, rough rice, and soybean prices.

Phosphate fertilisers rank among limited conventional production aids, requiring eco-unfriendly mining methods. On the other hand, wheat is an indispensable agricultural commodity essential in the food industry. For this reason, it is appropriate to monitor the potential bivariate relationship between these commodities and to follow their future development closely. The article aims to identify a correlation (Kendall’s tau) and causal (Granger causality test) between the price of Moroccan phosphate and wheat, applying vector autoregression (VAR). The results show a medium-to-strong correlation between phosphate and wheat, while causal analysis suggests a reciprocal relationship. The final prediction indicates the price stability of Moroccan phosphate and a fall in wheat prices, showing steady trends of the Moroccan phosphate and wheat market affected by the alarming situation in Ukraine. The article’s drawbacks are a narrow market specialisation, which ignores other agricultural commodities. Our findings contribute to national officeholders and professional public, private and non-profit agrarian organisations. Investors may benefit from exploring turbulent exogenous variables like a critical geopolitical deadlock in Ukraine. The main contribution highlights the fact that the conventional fertiliser and wheat market situation appears to be stable and free from elements of uncertainty.

In a contemporary globalised world, assuring food security in the conditions of developing a food self-sufficient economic structure represents not only a challenge in terms of the changing agricultural paradigm, but also an important instrument in assuring, in a long-term manner, societal resilience. However, while achieving self-sufficiency in food, China still faces challenges in terms of establishing sustainable food security and transitioning to a zero hunger state. Rapid economic growth and urbanisation have resulted in shifting food consumption patterns from crops towards more nutritious meat and dairy products and higher-qualitative imported foods. In this study, the current state of food security and production and trade in food and agricultural products in China during 2000-2020 have been analysed and an overview of the strategic directions of the domestic sustainable development, food security, and zero hunger policies are highlighted. The main aim of the study is dedicated to identifying the critical shortcomings and gaps in combating hunger and food insecurity in China and proposing policy recommendations regarding improving the stability of the food supply in the country and deigning new possible strategies to achieve it. The results highlight the major trends and shifts of the food security paradigm in the process of developing a food self-sufficient economy.

Agriculture 4.0 creates a challenge for agricultural and forest enterprises in the form of changes in the processes and strategies set up to now. The ability for flexibility, personal development, and further education will be critical in transforming agriculture and forestry organisations. The transition to Agriculture 4.0 will also affect the need for human resource management in terms of their need and competence structure. This work aims to identify a group of employees in the environment of the Slovak Republic’s agricultural and forest enterprises with the prerequisites to acquire additional work competencies and the interest to develop flexibly. The mentioned group of employees, understood as progressive, will be examined from the point of view of motivational preferences and the level of satisfaction with them. The presented outputs follow searching the sample unit of 2 193 employees in agriculture and forestry organisations. Based on inferential statistics, it was confirmed that the progressive group of employees is identifiable in terms of their education and, compared to other groups, has a significantly higher perception of the importance of motivation factors with the highest difference in the case of factors related to career aspiration and social needs.