Efficience productive des industries agroalimentaires en Tunisie: analyse intra- sectorielle
New Medit, vol 9, n.1, (March 2010), pp. 59-64
Language: FR
Jel classification: Q130, L660
The agri-food sector plays a very important role in Tunisia from a social, economic and ecological point of view. The enhancement of agricultural products represents an income and employment source. Anyway, this sector has to cope with problems reducing its performance. This work suggests the setting up of an empirical method to measure the production efficiency of the sector using a panel of agri-food industries. The borderline approach of the stochastic production, which can bring about the productive performance of agri-food industries, is used as empirical framework in order to determine their efficiency in the period 1983-2004. Results show that in Tunisia agri-food industries can be distinguished into two categories, according to the level of State intervention: the subsidized (strategic) agri-food industries and the non-subsidized ones. While the average value of the technical efficiency indices is nearly 0.478, in the case of subsidized industries it is 0.20 and in the case of non- subsidized firms it equals 0.60. Therefore, the subsidized firms are less efficient, whereas the non-subsidized ones are the most efficient. All this demonstrates the effect of the protection of agri-food industries on their level of production efficiency.
production efficiency, subsidy, agri-food industry, Tunisia
