Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Tomas RATINGER Author-Workplace-Name: Technology Centre of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (TC ASCR), Prague, Czech Republic Author-Workplace-Name: Czech University of Life Sciences (CULS), Prague, Czech Republic Author-Name: Adam TOMKA Author-Workplace-Name: Czech University of Life Sciences (CULS), Prague, Czech Republic Author-Name: Iveta BOSKOVA Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Agricultural Economics and Information (IAEI), Prague, Czech Republic Title: Sustainable consumption of bakery products; a challenge for Czech consumers and producers Abstract: The objective of this paper is to investigate the level of bakery product wastes in Czech households, economic, social and institutional factors which affect bakery products consumption and wastes and which role producers, retailers and consumers themselves play in it. The research deploys quantitative assessment of the relationship between prices, income and consumed quantities and qualitative assessment (surveys and focus groups) of opinions and attitudes of consumers, producers and retailers to wastes. To do the analysis we consider the model of social practices. We addressed a sample made by 260 respondents. The results suggest the actual wastes of bakery products are relatively low (less than 5%), because of quite large recoverability of bread and roll surpluses in households. The critical issue for bread and rolls consumption is quality and "freshness". The notion of freshness of bakery products has changed since the mid of the 1990s. Furthermore, the food is not considered to be wasted when it is either used as a feeding or composted. The norms on handling with bread in households are likely not as strong as in the past, nevertheless, most of the participants in the focus groups agreed that bread is food which should not be wasted. Keywords: bakery products, food consumption alternatives, food waste, household survey, social practices, sustainable consumption Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 447-458 Volume: 62 Issue: 10 Year: 2016 DOI: 10.17221/244/2015-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/244/2015-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201610-0001.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:62:y:2016:i:10:id:244-2015-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Raul SERRANO Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Economy and Business, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain Author-Name: Isabel ACERO Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Economy and Business, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain Author-Name: Marta FERNANDEZ-OLMOS Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Economy and Business, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain Title: Networks and export performance of agri-food firms: New evidence linking micro and macro determinants Abstract: The paper complements a new line of research that includes the firm heterogeneity in trade models. The central idea of this research is that only the largest and most efficient firms are capable of exporting. However, the empirical evidence has confirmed that a large number of SMEs is also involved in internationalisation. Given this context, the aim of the paper is to analyse the influence of collaborative networks between firms and institutions as an alternative mechanism to the small size of the majority of the firms in the agri-food industry. To this end, there was used a longitudinal panel between 1994 and 2012 comprising a sample of 342 Spanish firms involved in the business sectors of the food, meat, drink and tobacco industries, and a dynamic Heckman-Probit model was implemented. The first stage studies the positive influence of collaborative networks in firms' decision to export and the second stage analyses the effect of cooperation mechanisms on export intensity. The results show a positive effect of business cooperation networks in both stages suggesting that SMEs can overcome the barrier of their small size in their internationalisation process through other mechanisms, such as collaborative networks. Keywords: agribusiness, export performance, firm heterogeneity, gravity equation, Heckman model, internationalisation, networks Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 459-470 Volume: 62 Issue: 10 Year: 2016 DOI: 10.17221/71/2015-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/71/2015-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201610-0002.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:62:y:2016:i:10:id:71-2015-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Aron TOROK Author-Workplace-Name: Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary Author-Name: Attila JAMBOR Author-Workplace-Name: Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary Title: Determinants of the revealed comparative advantages: The case of the European ham trade Abstract: Revealed comparative advantages are widely used by the global literature to analyse the international trade flows, though agricultural trade is usually neglected in the empirical works. Moreover, the determinants of revealed comparative advantages are scarcely investigated. This article analyses revealed comparative advantages in European ham trade from 1999 to 2013 and identifies its determinants by using the panel data econometrics. The results suggest that quality linked to the production area highly affects the competitiveness of the European ham trade. Also, the EU accession is positively correlated with the competitiveness, meaning that the economic integration fosters competitiveness. However, in spite of the initial expectations, the FDI is negatively related to the competitiveness of the European ham trade, underlining the importance of the national ham processing companies. Keywords: EU accession, factor endowments, FDI, geographical indication, ham trade Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 471-482 Volume: 62 Issue: 10 Year: 2016 DOI: 10.17221/177/2015-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/177/2015-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201610-0003.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:62:y:2016:i:10:id:177-2015-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Dusan SIMO Author-Workplace-Name: Nitra, Slovak Republic Author-Name: Ladislav MURA Author-Workplace-Name: Department of International Entrepreneurship, Faculty of Economics and Business, Pan-European University in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovak Republic Author-Name: Jan BULECA Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Finance, Faculty of Economics, Technical University, Košice, Slovak Republic Title: Assessment of milk production competitiveness of the Slovak Republic within the EU-27 countries Abstract: Raw cow milk represents one of the most important commodity in the agricultural market. The Slovak agro-food foreign trade is characterized by a substantial increase in the commodity trade, monitoring of competitiveness is therefore very important. The aim of the article was to evaluate the current situation of breeding processes in the cattle production with focus to the raw cow milk production and dairy products; and to compare the competitiveness of the domestic supply with the EU-27 countries. To quantify the evaluation of competitiveness, mathematical and statistical methods were used. Indicators of the exposed comparative advantage (RCA); the competitiveness growth index (RCA 1); the net trade performance index (RCA 2); the indicator of relative import penetration (RMA); the indicator of relative export advantages (RXA); and the indicator of relative business advantages (RTA) were calculated. The research of the foreign trade competitiveness parameters of the aggregated group Milk (RCA, RCA 1, RCA 2, RMA, RXA; and RTA) showed that the Slovak Republic has a comparative advantage among the EU-27 countries in the commodity 0401 (milk and cream, not concentrated or containing added sugar or other sweeteners), in all other monitored commodities, a comparative disadvantage was determined. Based on the research, the ideas and recommendations for the agricultural policy and for the milk processors were formulated. Keywords: comparative advantage, competitiveness indicators, European Union, milk products, raw milk Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 482-492 Volume: 62 Issue: 10 Year: 2016 DOI: 10.17221/270/2015-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/270/2015-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201610-0004.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:62:y:2016:i:10:id:270-2015-AGRICECON