Economic and Financial Sustainability Dependency on Subsidies: The Case of Goat Farms in Greece

Maria Tsiouni,Alexandra Pavloudi,Dario Siggia,Stamatis Aggelopoulos

doi:10.3390/su13137441

Maria Tsiouni, Alexandra Pavloudi + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137441

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Abstract

Goat farming is an important production sector not only for Greece, but also for other Mediterranean countries, as it contributes to the family economy in rural areas. Despite the importance of goat farming, this sector has experienced economic difficulties due to poor management and increased production costs. The aim of our research is to determine goat farm profitability by surveying goat farmers for revenues, variable costs, and fixed costs of their farms. With the use of Principal Component Analysis, all economic factors contributing to overall production costs are examined, as well as their specific impacts on cost formulation. According to our results, goat farms in Greece are not profitable and they cannot survive without government subsidies. Farm economics and agricultural policies could be leveraged to improve community and environmental outcomes in order for farms to be economically and financially sustainable.

Highlights

The goat farming industry is crucial to economic cohesion, especially for countries in the Mediterranean and Middle East regions, contributing to the family economy, to the social function of rural areas, to sustainable livelihoods and to the production of highquality products, due to the high contents of poly unsaturated fat, cardioprotective omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants in food products derived from goat [1,2,3,4,5]
This study focuses on the financial viability of farms as an opportunity cost measure, as economic sustainability is long-term economic viability at the farm household level
We examine all economic factors that contribute to the overall production cost and how these factors affect the cost formulation

Summary

Introduction

The goat farming industry is crucial to economic cohesion, especially for countries in the Mediterranean and Middle East regions, contributing to the family economy, to the social function of rural areas, to sustainable livelihoods and to the production of highquality products, due to the high contents of poly unsaturated fat, cardioprotective omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants in food products derived from goat [1,2,3,4,5]. Global goat milk production is 20 million (M) metric tons and goat meat production is 6.2 million (M) metric tons [6]. European Union countries contributed 15% to goat milk production (3 million metric tons) and 1.6% (96,310 metric tons) to goat meat production. Greece is the fourth largest producer of milk, with 355,760 metric tons, and the first producer of goat meat, with. A typical example is the fact that farmers with land rights are receiving subsidies, whereas environmental measures are being considered [7]

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