Article
Economic Sustainability of Pig Slaughtering Firms in the
Production Chain of Denomination of Origin Hams in Italy
Giuseppe Bonazzi
1
, Paolo Camanzi
2
, Giovanni Ferri
1
, Elisa Manghi
1
and Mattia Iotti
3,
*
Citation: Bonazzi, G.; Camanzi, P.;
Ferri, G.; Manghi, E.; Iotti, M.
Economic Sustainability of Pig
Slaughtering Firms in the Production
Chain of Denomination of Origin
Hams in Italy. Sustainability 2021, 13,
7639. https://doi.org/10.3390/
su13147639
Academic Editors: João Carlos de
Oliveira Matias, Paolo Renna and
George K. Symeon
Received: 9 May 2021
Accepted: 6 July 2021
Published: 8 July 2021
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1
Department of Veterinary Science, University of Parma, 43126 Parma, Italy; giuseppe.bonazzi@unipr.it (G.B.);
giovanni.ferri@unipr.it (G.F.); elisa.manghi@unipr.it (E.M.)
2
Analisiaziendale.it Srl, 40121 Bologna, Italy; paolo.camanzi@analisiaziendale.it
3
Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Parma, 43124 Parma, Italy
* Correspondence: mattia.iotti@unipr.it
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
1. Introduction
The pig processing industry and its related industries characterize the Italian agri-food
system. The Italian pig sector is characterized by numerous figures of operators involved
both in the agricultural phase and in the subsequent industrial process of transformation.
The two segments of the pig production chain in Italy are united by slaughtering activities.
These companies play an important role in the sustainability of the agri-food chain, because
they control the origin and quality of agri-food production in an important node of the
production chain, namely the transition from the agricultural production phase to the
industrial transformation phase, thus guaranteeing the traceability of production, food
safety, and therefore the transparency of the consumer market [1–3].
Heavy pig breeding characterizes Italian pig farming and makes it different from that
of the rest of Europe; the breeding of heavy pigs characterizes Italian production with
the qualitative distinction and the link with the territory and to improve the generation
of value; pig production has a major impact on consumer choices [
4
,
5
]. The slaughtering
sector plays an important role in food traceability, guarantees food safety, and reduces
the information asymmetry between producer and consumer [
6
]. For this reason, various
actions of the Community Agricultural Policy (CAP) have been implemented in order
to favor the integration of the food chain, also in the pork sector [
7
]. Various legislative
Sustainability 2021, 13, 7639. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147639 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability
