Food and beverages industry competitiveness in economic turbulence: Agricultural policy viewpoints

Abstract

Purpose

In the midst of the Greek economic and financial crisis, food and beverage firms constitute one of the most dynamic parts of the Greek economy proved resilient in conditions of economic turbulence. The purpose of this paper is to assess the competitiveness of the Greek food and beverage firms within the context of turbulent economic conditions and draw the relevant entailed agricultural policy viewpoints.

Design/methodology/approach

The analysis is based on competitiveness measures such as profitability and market share utilizing a sample of 550 firms which published their annual balance sheets the 2008–2012 period. The analysis takes place with the use of a simultaneous equations tobit model.

Findings

The main results show that market share, profitability and capital intensity affect positively both on market share and profitability, while operating costs have a negative and statistically significant effect on profitability. The rate of growth affects positively and statistically significant on profitability while the index of loans does not affect on market share. As the results indicate, food and beverages industry has proven resilient in conditions of economic turbulence without direct policy measures or subsidies.

Originality/value

Among other factors, the evolution of agricultural policy is affecting decisively the competitiveness of agro-food sector (Chaddad and Jank, 2006; Banse et al., 1999). Nevertheless, food competitiveness is significantly shaped and influenced within the broad economic climate of a country, region or the whole world. Thus, the present study tries to assess the competitiveness of Greek food and beverages sector in conditions of macroeconomic turbulence and draw the relevant entailed agricultural policy viewpoints.

Citation

Konstantinidis, C., Natos, D. and Mattas, K. (2021), "Food and beverages industry competitiveness in economic turbulence: Agricultural policy viewpoints", British Food Journal, Vol. 123 No. 5, pp. 1974-1983. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-04-2019-0267