Articles
THE COMPETITIVENESS MONITOR APPLIED ON THE CUT FLOWER INDUSTRY
Therefor LEI-DLO has developed an instrument, which can be used to measure international competitiveness in all agricultural industries on a regular basis, a so-called Competitiveness Monitor.
The central question the Competitiveness Monitor can answer is: what is the present competitive position of the Dutch agribusiness, on what aspects is the performance of the agribusiness worse or better and what can be point of improvement?
The newly developed framework consists of a hierarchical tree structure of determinants of competitiveness, which are based on a survey of the literature.
The top level of the instrument consists of four key factors that cover all aspects of competitiveness and are expected not to change in time: market adaptability, supply chain effectiveness, costs and efficiency and strategic potential.
These factors are industry independent.
The second level contains the underlying variables, which may be specific industry.
The framework contains furthermore a standardized questionnaire for buyers and sellers, and a selection procedure to select markets in which to measure and the competitors to compare with.
Leading for the conclusions on competitiveness is the opinion of buyers.
The theoretical framework and procedures were applied to the cut flower industry.
Dutch cut flower exporters have a dominant competitive position in the imports in France and Germany.
This position turns out to be dependent on a significant better score on the key factor ‘market adaptability’ and ‘strategic potential’. Finally, measurement with the instrument gives the agribusiness practical points to improve their competitive position and it also gives information to support priority setting in policy.