Agrarian Economy 2021 Т. 14 № 3-4: 74-83

THE IMPORTANCE OF PRODUCTION TRENDS IN THE ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE OF FRUIT FARMS

Elżbieta Jadwiga Szymańska, dr hab. inż.prof. SGGW
ORCID ID: 0000-0001-7686-1243
Warsaw University of Life Sciences – SGGW
I. Cherevko, Candidate of Economic Sciences, associate professor
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-8411-6136
Lviv National Agrarian University
M. Rysz, Master degree student
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-9553-4907
Carpathian State University in Krosno

ANNOTATION

By the logic of things, the higher level of specialization should provide a higher level of efficiency of producer’s economic activity. So, the aim of the research is to identify the economic situation of fruit farms work in different production directions regarding the level of efficiency of its activity depending of such directions. The hypothesis is formulated, according to which economic and financial results in fruit farms depend on the prevailing direction of specialization of the farm. The sources of information in the study were literature studies on the subject and the results of questionnaire surveys. The sample under study consisted of farms from the Malopolska and Pogurze Regions. The researched farms are focused on the production of fruit from fruit trees or shrubs, which in 2018 kept accounting under FADN. Due to the production structure, the researched farms were divided into two groups, depending on the dominant production direction, producing hard fruit or soft fruit. The fruit growers were mainly involved in production of apples. On the other hand, in the group of farms which specialized in production of soft fruit, dominated black currant, additionally there were grown cherries, plums, pears, red currants and raspberries. The non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test was used in the data analysis. The research showed that hard fruit farms were characterized by lower land resources and a higher value of buildings and current assets. In its turn, farms cultivating soft fruit had higher labor resources and a higher value of machines and devices, that could be confirmed by the fact that they had specialized harvesting machines. Growers of fruit trees gained a higher value of production or farm income than farmers producing soft fruit. However, statistical analysis showed, that farm income and profitability of individual production factors (land, labor and capital) did not depend on the dominating direction of fruit production of the farm, presumably - due to the not quite significant number of farms.

KEY WORDS

production, fruit, farms, income, profitability, Mann-Whitney U test

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