Competitiveness of the Persian Lemon in the Papaloapan Region, Oaxaca
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Revista Mexicana Ciencias Agrícolas volume 10 number 4 May 16 - June 29, 2019 Article Competitiveness of the Persian lemon in the Papaloapan region, Oaxaca Wilma Adriana López-Hernández1§ Laura Elena Garza-Bueno1 Bartolomé Cruz-Galindo1 Raúl Nieto-Angel2 1Postgraduate College-Campus Montecillo. Mexico-Texcoco Highway, km 36.5, Montecillo, Texcoco, State of Mexico, Mexico. CP. 56230. ([email protected]; [email protected]). 2Autonomous University Chapingo. Mexico-Texcoco Highway km 38.5, Chapingo, State of Mexico, Mexico. CP. 56230. ([email protected]). §Corresponding author: [email protected]. Abstract The area devoted to Persian lemon cultivation in the Papaloapan Basin region, Oaxaca, increased by more than 86% in the last ten years while its participation in international markets increased. This fact, together with the favorable natural conditions of the region for the production of the crop, shows a potential for growth. The objective of the research was to evaluate the competitive performance of the producers of said region, as well as to calculate its price-cost competitiveness through the application of a survey. In the first case, we used the valuation of their positioning capacity in the market and the knowledge they have of it. For the calculation of price-cost competitiveness, the Policy Analysis Matrix was taken as the basis. The results show a low competitive performance due to the fact that less than half of the surveyed population performs technological development and human resource training activities that allow them to position themselves better in the market, in addition to a lack of knowledge of the demands of national and international markets. On the other hand, the results show that the relative remuneration of the capital producer for the 2015-2016 cycle was: 88%, 89% and 92% for small, medium and large producers; respectively, which reflects the competitiveness of producers in terms of the price-cost ratio. Keywords: competitiveness, Persian lemon, profitability. Reception date: February 2019 Acceptance date: May 2019 921 Rev. Mex. Cienc. Agríc. vol. 10 num. 4 May 16 - June 29, 2019 Introduction The export of citrus fruits in Mexico is one of the most important economic activities for the national agricultural sector. Citrus fruits are fruits of high national consumption and one of the main export products, being the United States of America the main recipient of the product, followed by Japan (Ruiz et al., 2016). The citrus industry in Mexico is an activity that generates an important part of the jobs of the national agricultural sector and an economic income of more than ten billion pesos annually (Hidroponia.mx, 2016). In addition, it contributes 2.78% of the gross domestic product (GDP) (SAGARPA, 2016) and represents an important export activity since nearly a quarter of the national citrus production is sent abroad, more than 85% of these exports correspond to Persian lemon and the main buyer is the United States of America (Hidroponia.mx, 2016). It emphasizes the participation of three states in the cultivation of lemon. Veracruz being the main producer with 45 995 hectares harvested in 2017, followed by Michoacán with 44 320 hectares and in the third position Oaxaca with a harvest of 19 934 hectares in that year (SIAP, 2017). Although referring to the Persian lemon Oaxaca is in the second position. According to information from the SIAP (2017) the largest producer is the state of Veracruz with 655 299.64 tons (44 852.5 ha) in 2017, second Oaxaca with 195 903 t (13 804.9 ha) and third Tabasco with 83 970.88 (7 191.82 ha), which account for 77% of the volume generated in the country. One of the attractions of lemon cultivation is its dynamic behavior. ‘Mexico is among the first producing and exporting countries of limes and lemons worldwide. The value of exports increased from 63 623 to 269 918 thousand dollars, with a percentage growth rate of 324.24% during the period 2002-2011’ (Pat et al., 2014). Another feature to highlight is the fact that in the export of the same not only large companies participate, since some medium and small have also managed to position themselves in the American and European market (El Sol de Mexico, 2018). Likewise, the lemon competitiveness indicators stand out both nationally and internationally. According to Pat et al. (2014 and 2015); Caamal, et al. (2014) who made an analysis of them in 2014 ‘the indicator of the relative trade balance (BCR) on average is 0.99, which indicates that Mexico is a net lemon exporting country with a competitive advantage. The indicator of tradability is 0.33, which is greater than zero, therefore, the sector is considered a net exporter, given that there is an excess of supply and indicates that it is a competitive product in the domestic market. The coefficient of commercial dependence is zero, reflecting competitiveness in the sector or productive chain’. On the other hand, the study of the Persian lemon becomes interesting, because it is a product that does not require major transformations for its commercialization and its main destinations are the export markets; unfortunately, there are no studies that refer to the competitive level of this crop in the state of Oaxaca, prioritizing the case of Veracruz, which is the main producer or the analysis of its exports (Caamal et al., 2014; Pat, et al., 2015; Arias and Suárez, 2016). 922 Rev. Mex. Cienc. Agríc. vol. 10 num. 4 May 16 - June 29, 2019 The above is particularly relevant considering that despite having one of the most important poles of economic development in the state, the Papaloapan region is characterized by a high level of social marginalization, since 85% of the municipalities in the region and 87% of their localities are in a situation of high and very high marginalization (CDI, 2008). Levels of marginalization are accentuated mainly in the district of Choapam, whose municipalities are considered very high marginalization, but also affect the municipalities of the district of Tuxtepec, where only the entity that gives its name to the district is considered of marginal marginalization. In these conditions, the potential of a crop like the Persian lemon stands out, which presents a very dynamic behavior since the planted area has increased by more than 448% during the period from 2003-2014, going from 2 540 to 11 402.5 ha (SIAP, 2016). It is necessary, therefore, to have more elements to stimulate the competitiveness of the crop in the region of study, reason for which the present study was carried out with the main objective of evaluating the competitiveness of the Persian lemon producers in the Region of the Papaloapan Basin, under an agro-food chain approach (Rojas and Sepúlveda, 1999) given that it allows maintaining, expanding and improving in a sustained manner the participation in the market, looking for the ultimate benefit of society. The main hypothesis of the research establishes that the cultivation of Persian lemon in the Papaloapan Basin is profitable but not very competitive. Materials and methods The present investigation used a mixed methodological approach: qualitative and quantitative. The qualitative approach is based on the collection of data without numerical mediation to discover or refine research questions in the interpretation process and the quantitative approach, using data collection to test hypotheses, based on numerical mediation and statistical analysis for establish patterns of behavior and test theories (Hernández et al., 2014). For the gathering of information in the field, the municipalities with the highest production of Persian lemon in the region were selected, such as: San Juan Bautista Tuxtepec, Santiago Yaveo, San Juan Cotzocon and San Miguel Soyaltepec. The production of these four municipalities represents 99% of the regional production (SIAP, 2017). Figure 1. Location of the Persian lemon chain in the territory. Elaboration with data of INEGI (2007). 923 Rev. Mex. Cienc. Agríc. vol. 10 num. 4 May 16 - June 29, 2019 In a first stage, within the framework of the exploratory qualitative analysis, a visit was arranged with some key actors such as providers of professional services (PSP), suppliers of inputs, owners of regional packing houses and local intermediaries, as well as interviewing producers. This first visit was held in July 2016 and its purpose was to identify the production units and the actors involved in the chain to have, in this way, a broader picture of the situation of the chain in the region from the perspective of each one of the actors that participate in it. Based on the information gathered in these interviews, it was possible to observe that the producers carry out practices that, although they are not clearly oriented to the demands of the market, allow them to improve their productivity. From that information, the hypothesis of the investigation was formulated. Regarding the specific evaluation of competitiveness, this was carried out based on the proposal FAO (1997) taken up by García et al. (2006), which considers a series of internal factors to measure competitive performance, of which the positioning capacity and knowledge of the market stand out, which are disaggregated into the following nine components: the application or not of a technological package, technical assistance, training received, adoption of innovations, training of personnel hired in the field, knowledge of standards (national and international), the implementation or not of good agricultural practices (BPA) and good manufacturing practices (BPM) ), the commercial maturity of the fruit and the forced production during the winter period. The criterion of realization or not of such activities was established by percentage frequencies which allow to observe the extent to which the producers, individually or in groups, attend to the practices that allow them to reach competitiveness in the markets.