Eficiência e Rentabilidade da Produção e Leite no Estado do Ceará: uma aplicação de fronteira estocástica

Abstract

This article analyzes the technical efficiency and economic profitability of commercial dairy farmers from Ceará State, using the stochastic frontier production methodology. As primary conclusion, the study observed a high rate of mean technical efficiency in the set of companies, about 80%, which points, however, to a relevant space to the unities’ efficiency growth, especially considering the efficiency rates dispersion. As it regards to the variables used to define the production frontier, all of them were statistically significant, and the expense with labor was the variable that presented the main contribution to the production growth. Among variables used to explain technical inefficiency, all resulted significant, and the genetic group of the herd was the one that presented the main participation at decreasing inefficiency. After the estimative of each company’s efficiency, the present research analyzed the behavior of some technical indicators of productivity and economic profitability. It found that as the technical efficiency of the unities increased the indexes of productivity also improved, as well as a reduction of operational expenses and an elevation of profit margins. Finally, the research focused the important correlation between the efficiency level and the volume produced, suggesting a scale effect on milk production.