Efficiency of wine grape growers at farm level: a case study

University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD, www.utad.pt) and Centre for Transdisciplinary Development Studies (CETRAD), Portugal

^a Corresponding author: micaels@utad.pt

Abstract

To determine the key variables of the vineyard efficiency is imperative to account the combined effects of the inputs interactions since they have implications on the overall final production. This paper estimates the productive efficiency of a wine-farm sample from the Douro Demarcated Region (DDR) while identifies economic, social and environmental indicators that characterizes the DDR grape production system. The data was collected by face-to-face surveys performed at farm level to build a pilot study. The majority of the sampled twenty farms are dedicated to mountain viticulture and mainly feature the cordon (simple and double) training system. Through the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method, the productive efficiency of the sampled was performed and the results clinched different efficiency scores. The main explanation is related to the heterogeneity of the adopted production system. In addition, they revealed how grape producers could improve their productive efficiency by adopting particular practices and identifying the key factors of their system.