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Agriculture and the agri-food industry are central to fostering economic growth and the Sustainable Development Goals' targets. However, to meet the world's future development, it is necessary to make the agri-food system more resource-efficient. The transition towards the circular economy (CE) paradigm is commonly seen as a promising strategy to overcome the critical issues affecting the sector. However, different theoretical and practical problems still need to be solved. Specifically, the CE performance measurement of specific sectors or national systems is crucial as it helps to identify and correct any deviation from the vision set out for achieving the sustainable development objectives. This article aims to contribute to CE research, focusing on European agriculture and the agri-food sector. Drawing on the EE-MRIO database EXIOBASE v3.7, this paper estimates the level of circularity in the European Union countries and the role of agriculture and agri-food in determining circularity. Results showed that circularity in the EU is low and significant differences between countries exist. Agriculture contributes to 80.5% of the entire amount of recycled materials in Europe. Vice versa, the contribution provided by the agri-food sector is limited to 1%. Some policy implications derive from this study.

Recent developments in the food market show a reemergence of short supply chain (SFSC) mechanisms that allow producers to directly sell to final consumers. Multifunctional farms are able to internalize some public value and transfer this value in their food produced as to increase income. As such, agritourism can be considered a pure form of SFSC in creating this added value. Using a case study of an Italian farm that produces both typical and fine wines, we aimed to analyze how agritourism creates added value. The SFSC and other opportunities were compared. From a multifunctional perspective, our other purpose was to identify the main drivers able to generate the “value portfolio” for the agritourist farmer. The results suggest that wide margins for creating value exist for on-farm distribution and that many aspects contribute to building the farmer’s “value portfolio”., Aestimum, Aestimum 75 (2019)

Italian Review of Agricultural Economics, Vol 71 No 1 (2016): Vol 71, No 1 (Suppl.) (2016)

Several studies have compared technical efficiency estimates derived from parametric and non parametric approaches, whereas a very small number of studies have aimed to compare scale efficiency estimations. This paper aims to estimate technical and scale efficiency in the Italian citrus farming. Estimation was carried out using both Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA). Empirical findings suggest that the greater portion of overall inefficiency in the sample might depend on producing below the production frontier than on operating under an inefficient scale. Furthermore, we found that the estimated technical efficiency from the SFA model is substantially at the same level of this estimated from DEA model, whereas the scale efficiency arisen from SFA is larger than this obtained from DEA analysis.

In Sardinia sea urchin (Paracentrotus lividus) roe is a basic ingredient for several dishes (e.g. pasta, pizza, croutons) and its demand is constantly increasing. However marketable value of local sea urchin appears to be potentially higher than the current value. This paper aims to estimate the value of a based sea urchin dish according to the stated preference of consumers. A Choice Experiment (CE) analysis on 475 consumers was carried out in order to estimate their willingness to pay (WTP) for consuming sea urchin. Seafood was proposed as alternative to sea urchin. CE concerned two attributes: certification of local origin and place where dishes are consumed. Findings suggest that WTP for a generic dish is significantly higher for sea urchin (11.65 Euros) than for seafood (7.94 Euros) based dish. Furthermore, we found that WTP is higher when both foods are consumed with spaghetti and as raw fresh product, whereas an opposite effect is associated to pizza. Finally, the influence of some socio‐economic characteristics of responders on their preferences was estimated., International Journal on Food System Dynamics, Vol 5, No 3 (2014)

This paper aims to estimate technical and scale efficiency in the Italian citrus farming. Estimation was carried out from two different approach: a non parametric and a parametric approach using a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model and a Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) model, respectively. Several studies have compared technical efficiency estimates derived from parametric and non parametric approaches, while a very small number of studies have aimed to compare scale efficiency obtained from different methodological approaches. This is one of the first attempts that aims to put on evidence possible difference in scale efficiency estimations in farming due to methods used. Empirical findings suggest that the greater portion of overall inefficiency in the sample might depend on producing below the production frontier than on operating under an inefficient scale. Furthermore, we found that the estimated technical efficiency from the SFA model is substantially at the same level of this estimated from DEA model, while the scale efficiency arisen from SFA is larger than this obtained from DEA analysis.

Big Food Retail and Power: an economic-political estimation. Increasing market power of big retail into the agro-food supply chain depends on economic, institutional, cultural and policy factors. It is a multi-faceted issue that moves us to take into account not only the economic aspects but the social, policy, psychological and behavioural ones, too. This complexity can be handled trough different approaches: among them, the so called economic-political framework considers economic and behavioural factors together. This approach cannot leave aside from empirical estimation of market power presence. This paper is devoted to carry on a first-pass estimation of big retail market power in two Italian supply chains: olive oil and fresh vegetables. The econometric model proposed by Lloyd et al. (2009) allows us to estimate price transmission in the observed supply chains. Findings suggest that market power exists in the olive oil sector whereas the model does not significantly fit the data in the fresh vegetable sector.

Sardinia (Italy) is one of the most important European regions for sheep dairy and sheep milk cheese production. However the Sardinian sheep dairy industry is currently going through a dramatic crisis, and verifying whether it can recover part of its profitability is now a priority. Attention is now focused on estimating whether the sheep dairy firms can improve their productivity by more efficient use of their available technical resources. This paper aims to estimate technical efficiency in the Sardinian sheep dairy industry. A stochastic frontier analysis approach was used on panel data from 36 sheep dairy firms over the period 2004-2009 in order to assess whether there are some margins for technical improvements in productivity, given the existing level of technology. A comparative analysis of private firms and cooperatives was also carried out, in order to establish if there were differences in the technology they used and/or their efficiency in using technical inputs. Our findings suggest that there is technological homogeneity among the firms and between private firms and cooperatives. Technical efficiency is equal to 0.905 and it is significantly different between private firms (0.933) and cooperatives (0.877). Our findings have certain implications for what policies should be implemented in order to improve efficiency in the sector and on the orientation of decision makers strategies.