Economic Sustainability of Pig Slaughtering Firms in the Production Chain of Denomination of Origin Hams in Italy

Giuseppe Bonazzi, Paolo Camanzi, Giovanni Ferri, Elisa Manghi and Mattia Iotti
Additional contact information
Giuseppe Bonazzi: Department of Veterinary Science, University of Parma, 43126 Parma, Italy
Paolo Camanzi: Analisiaziendale.it Srl, 40121 Bologna, Italy
Giovanni Ferri: Department of Veterinary Science, University of Parma, 43126 Parma, Italy
Elisa Manghi: Department of Veterinary Science, University of Parma, 43126 Parma, Italy
Mattia Iotti: Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Parma, 43124 Parma, Italy

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 14, 1-18

Abstract: Pork meat in Italy is one of the largest agri-food chains in Italy. In the swine production chain, slaughter plays an important role, because it has an impact on animal welfare, food safety and the sustainability of the agri-food chain. These companies also deal with pigs destined for typical Denomination of Origin products and therefore play an important role in the production chain of typical products and in the field of EU agricultural policy. In this context, the research aims to analyze the economic sustainability of the major pig slaughter firms in Italy, through data analysis of the annual account statement (AAS) on a sample of eight companies analyzed over a ten-year historical series. Financial ratios and margins (FRM) analysis is applied in the research. FRM analysis shows that firms have the largest absorption of financial resources in the net working capital cycle. The research highlights the high incidence of raw materials in companies in the sector. Consequently, the profit margins of the companies in the sample are modest and in some cases are lower than the cost of debt, suggesting a moderate capacity to attract capital. This result appears as a negative signal of the economic sustainability of the companies in the sector. The research, now limited to a small number of large companies, opens a line of research that can be developed by expanding the sample to small and medium-sized enterprises of the chain of Denomination of Origin hams in Italy to suggest improvement interventions, in particular for rural or marginal areas of production.

Keywords: pig slaughtering; pig production chain; animal welfare; PDO and PGI products; net working capital; DuPont analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/14/7639/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/14/7639/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:14:p:7639-:d:590712

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().