Assessing of cereal production in Lithuania using sustainable economic competitiveness index

This paper analyses the sustainable economic competitiveness of cereal farms in Lithuania relative to selected European Union (EU) Member States (MS). The paper proposes and empirically tests an aggregated measure of Sustainable Economic Competitiveness Index (SECI) for agriculture from a production perspective. Based on a literature review on sustainability and competitiveness assessment in agriculture, the SECI was constructed for a selection of the 13 top cereal (wheat)-producing EU countries. The calculations were based on data taken from two EU FADN (European Union Farm Accountancy Data Network) standard results databases: the Public Database and the Cereal Farm Report, for an average cereal farm in the case of the 2010-2020 period. The sustainable competitive advantage of cereal farms in terms of economic aspects was assessed and compared based on nine selected indicators: gross margin, total costs, yield, wheat price, energy use intensity, water use intensity, nitrogen (N) use intensity, investment capacity, and farm net income. The study revealed that Lithuanian cereal farms ranked 5th on average in 2010-2020 after Germany, Denmark, Italy, and France among the selected MS. Lithuanian cereal farms ranked 1st in 2015 and 2nd in 2017 and 2020 throughout the analysed period. Lithuania's competitive advantage in cereal production stems from its relatively high gross margin per hectare of wheat and relatively low total costs per hectare of wheat. Denmark and Italy held the 1st place for four years each between 2010 and 2020.