Economic Competitiveness of Dairy Farms from the Top Milk-Producing Countries in the EU: Assessment in 2014–2021

Abstract

This study aims to present changes in the competitive positions of the dairy farms from EU countries with the highest milk production in 2020. The assessment was based on data from the FADN system for the years 2014–2021 and covered average and large dairy farms from five EU countries: Germany, France, The Netherlands, Italy, and Poland. To assess the competitive positions of dairy farms from the selected EU countries, we developed the Synthetic Measure of Competitive Position based on the resource-based theory of enterprises. The conducted research showed that: (1) average dairy farms in Poland had the lowest production potential resulting from their possessed resources. (2) The highest value of the Synthetic Measure of Competitive Position for 2014–2021 was achieved by average dairy farms from Germany and their position in the ranking strengthened throughout the analyzed period. (3) The same analysis conducted on the group of large dairy farms showed that the competitive position, measured with the Synthetic Measure of Competitive Position, was the highest in the case of Polish dairy farms.

Keywords

• dairy farms
• economic competitiveness
• EU countries