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AbstractThe present study analyses firm heterogeneity and sector‐specific technology. The theoretical model stands on the assumption of maximizing the return on capital and overcomes problems involved in simple profit maximization. The results show that a random parameter model with sector dummies and heteroscedasticity is the most appropriate model specification for distinguishing firm‐level and sector‐level efficiency and heterogeneity. The heterogeneity among firms as well as among sectors was found to be an important characteristic in Czech food processing. This holds for production technology as well as for technical efficiency. Moreover, the decomposition of total variance shows that intrasectoral differences in technologies are much more pronounced than the intersectoral differences. The differences in intrasector heterogeneity also suggest that the food processing industry will be subject to accelerated structural change in the coming years. Moreover, we found that on average the companies highly exploit their production possibilities. However, some companies cannot keep pace with competitors. Because leapfrogging does not appear to be present in selected industries (except for Milling), structural change is expected to occur in such a way that the most successful companies will strengthen their position.

Over the recent years Russia has faced an astonishing economic growth, coinciding with the era of Vladimir Putin's presidentship. Accordingly, it is not surprising that commonly these rising economic trajectories are attributed to progress in terms of transition initiated and further triggered by Putin's government. This paper is trying to investigate empirically whether the current growth in Russia tends to be caused mainly by (1) success of transition or just by (2) favourable external circumstances such as rising prices for oil, gas, etc. Thus, analytically, progress in transition has been approximated by efficiency estimates, which are - from a theoretical point of view - expected to be rising in course of transition of a formerly planned economy towards a free market system. In order to capture potentially different trajectories of several sectors and regions industry and agriculture have been considered separately, each at regionally aggregated level over a period of 11 years. In general, little evidence of the anticipated rising trends could be found. Instead, notable ups, downs and divergences among regions and sectors were uncovered. According to this analysis, Russia's current growth rates cannot be attributed to general success of transition. Instead, besides reaping the benefits of favourable external circumstances at world markets, from an empirical point of view, scale effects and slightly rising productivity appear to be the main causes of the recent track record. Moreover, in the industry the trend is also triggered by technological progress, which may indicate the turnaround after a decade of decline and give a reason to believe in an initiation of a long-term growth process. Unfortunately, in agriculture little evidence for such a sustainable growth process was evident so far. In general, the inter-sectoral integration in Russia's economy seems to be still quite low.

In diesem Diskussionspapier wird die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit der weißrussischen Milchwirtschaft unter Verwendung von Außenhandelsdaten analysiert. Die ex-post Analyse wird durch eine ex-ante Analyse erweitert, um die künftige Stellung der Branche im internationalen Wettbewerb detaillierter zu untersuchen. Zur Systematisierung der verschiedenen Einflussfaktoren wird hierzu auf Porters Diamanten zurückgegriffen. Die Ergebnisse der ex-post Analyse mittels Außenhandelsindikatoren weisen auf eine starke Position Weißrusslands im Außenhandel mit Milcherzeugnissen hin. Diese Aussage trifft allerdings nur für den Handel mit Standardprodukten wie Milchpulver und Kondensmilch zu. Bei hochveredelten Produkten bestehen dagegen hohe Wettbewerbsnachteile. Die ex-ante Analyse mittels Porters Diamantenkonzept offenbart notwendige Voraussetzungen für eine positive Entwicklung der Milchproduktion. Natürliche Bedingungen, Infrastruktur und unterstützende Industrien, obwohl verbesserungswürdig, wirken sich positiv auf die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit aus. Nachteile ergeben sich dagegen aus der Ausstattung mit Arbeit und Kapital, der fehlenden Nachfrage nach differenzierten Produkten sowie der unsachgemäßen Ausgestaltung der Agrarpolitik. Verbesserungen dieser Bedingungen sind dringend erforderlich, sonst besteht die Gefahr, dass Weißrussland seine relative gute Position auf den internationalen Märkten für Milchprodukte einbüßen wird. ; This Discussion Paper provides an analysis of competitiveness of the Belarus' dairy sector based on international trade indicators. The ex-post analysis is extended by an ex-ante analysis in order to gain detailed insights into the sector's future opportunities and challenges. Systematic access is established through relevant determinants with respect to Porter's diamond. Ex-post analysis results indicate a strong position of Belarus in the international dairy trade although limited to homogenous products like milk powder and evaporated milk. Competitive disadvantages were revealed for highly processed dairy products. The ex-ante analysis through Porter's diamond model reveals the necessary prerequisites for potentially successful future developments in the dairy chain. Natural conditions, infrastructure and supporting industries, even though amendable, affect competitiveness positively. Competitive disadvantages result from a low demand for vertically and horizontally differentiated products, weak factor conditions with regard to capital and labour input, and inappropriate policy. These determinants need to be improved urgently otherwise Belarus may forgo its present relatively good position in international dairy markets.

This volume of proceedings, available both as hard copy and pdf , is a compilation of selected contributions to the IAMO Forum 2005, which will be held in Halle (Saale), Germany, at the Institute of Agricultural Development in Central and Eastern Europe from June 16-18, 2005. CONTENTS: Agricultural and food markets in Central and Eastern Europe: An introduction; Stephan Brosig, Heinrich Hockmann. Agricultural markets in CEE - An overview; József Popp. Regoverning agrifood markets in CEEC - Poland's pork and apple markets; Jerzy Wilkin, Malgorzta Juchniewicz, Dominika Milczarek. Regoverning markets in the Hungarian dairy sector; Imre Ferto, Csaba Forgács, Anikó Juhász, Gyöngyi Kürthy. Analysis of competitiveness, economic efficiency and distortions in the Estonian milk sector; Piret Hein. Building sustainable supply chains: The role of institutions; Jill E. Hobbs. How effective is the invisible hand on technological and institutional change and the reduction of transaction costs in the food sector? Ernst-August Nuppenau. How effective is the visible hand of the government in stabilising the wheat and flour price relation in Ukraine? Bernhard Brümmer, Sergiy Zorya. Marketing margins and price transmission on the Hungarian pork market; Lajos Zoltán Bakucs, Imre Ferto. Slovenian retailing market structures, retail prices, and size of marketing margins for food staples; Štefan Bojnec. Scarcity and preferences (Data Envelopment Analysis of Moscow region corporate farms); Nikolay Svetlov. Buying or renting in? Selling or renting out? Exploring contract choice on the Polish land market; Annette Hurrelmann. The organisation of buyer - Supplier relations in the food chain: The case of the German fruit processing industry and Polish farmers; Kai Maack. Supply Chain Networks: Analysis based on strategic management theories and institutional economics; Jon H. Hanf. Dynamics of labour market participation: What drives Chinese farmers into and out of off-farm employment? Thomas Glauben, Thomas Herzfeld, Xiaobing Wang. Market channels and commercial orientation in Romania; Borbala Balint. Land reform and the development of agricultural land markets in Russia; Zvi Lerman, Natalya Shagaida. Public quality schemes - Helping ensure well-functioning agri-food markets in Central and East European countries? Eckhard Benner. Competition, market power and antimonopoly policy: A Hayekian perspective; Jürgen Wandel. An ex-ante analysis of a minimum price system for Ukraine; Oleg Nivyevs'ki, Arnim Kuhn

Despite significant progress in recent years, horizontal and vertical integration of the Lithuanian milk sector is not very much advanced. The primary sector is characterised by small-scale farming, the fragmentation of farmland and a low number of livestock per farms. These features cause severe problems regarding the restructuring and modernisation of agricultural production since only a few farmers possess the capital resources to conduct necessary investments. However, despite the unfavourable conditions Lithuanian milk producers have made significant improvements concerning milk quality. In the last decade, the processing sector was due to drastic concentration processes. These were induced by the strong competition processes on the milk market and fostered by foreign direct investors. Today, the market is dominated by three companies. About ten enterprises supply almost the entire market of dairy products. The main mode of governance in the market for raw milk is contractual arrangements. The spot market of strong vertical control are unimportant. The basic rules of the contracts like duration or payment scheme are set by the Ministry of Agriculture, others, especially prices, are negotiated individually between farmer and processor. Because of advantages in terms of transport and transaction costs processors provide better conditions to large agricultural producers. Often the processors try to strengthen their relationships with large-scale producers by providing credits for farm modernisation and/or foodstuff. Most small producers do not deliver directly to processors but to milk collection centres. In general, these are owned by processors. So far, only a few farmers co-operatives have been established in order to take this function. Contractual arrangements also dominate in the distribution channel. Small processors supply mainly to wholesalers who supply the retail market. Large processors often circumvent the wholesale stage and supply the retail stage directly. The basic means which allow this forward integration are intensive marketing activities which are intended to improve the consumer perception of their products. However, this type of exchange is mainly observed in urban areas where well established large retail chains exist. The Lithuanian milk sector is highly internationally competitive. The expansion to international markets is in the responsibility of the individual firms. However, the Lithuanian government and the food processors have established a joint marketing agency that provides infrastructure and joint marketing for international trade.

Предпринимательская деятельность основана на максимизации прибыли для того, чтобы увеличить размер собственного капитала, расширить производство и на долгосрочный период гарантировать получение прибыли. Поэтому каждый ищет новые источники дохода, с помощью которых можно максимизировать стоимость произведенного продукта. Одним из новых источников дохода в сельском хозяйстве оказалось выращивание сельско- хозяйственных культур для производства энергии, тепла, топлива (биотопливо). В данном "Дискуссионном материале" проводится анализ рынка развития биотоплива, рассмат- ривается спрос и предложение, и оценивается конкурентоспособность биотоплива по от- ношению к минеральному топливу для того, чтобы определить нишу Германии и Украины на мировом рынке битоплива. Следует отметить, что Германия занимает лиди- рующие позиции по производству и использованию биотоплива среди стран Европейского Союза. Украина находится на этапе становления рынка биотоплива. При этом страна имеет предпосылки для его развития, принимая во внимание большой аграрный потенциал. Современный рынок биотоплива характеризуется постоянной тенденцией к развитию и росту производства. Предложение и спрос на рынке биотоплива во многом зависит от энергетической политики государства. На сегодняшний день биотопливо является вос- требованным, но без государственной поддержки является не конкурентоспособным по отношению к минеральному топливу. ; Enterprise activity is based on maximization of profit to increase the volume of own capital, to expand manufacture and to guarantee the earning of profit for the long-term period. Therefore everyone searches for new sources of the income by means of which it is possible to maximize cost of the made product. One of new sources of the income in agriculture is a cultivation of agricultural crops for the energy, heat, fuel (biofuel) manufacture. In this discussion paper the market is examined for biofuel, as well as their competitiveness is analyzed in comparison to mineral fuels. Germany takes the lead positions on manufacture and use of biofuel among the countries of the European Union and Ukraine has a big potential on the agricultural commodities market and big possibilities of development for biofuel. The modern market of biofuel is characterized by the constant tendency to development and growth of manufacture. The supply and the demand at the market is strongly depends on the state energy policy. In the work it is also shown that the production of biofuel is not competitive without state support.