Product Assortment and the Efficiency of Farms

During the past decade, interventions for the restructuring and modernising of viticulture have been of great interest to the winemaking Western Balkan Countries (WBCs) and Early Transition Countries (ETCs) (Food and Agricultural Organization 2009). Within the platform for rural development and support from the national Rural Development Programs (RDP), grape producers have been encouraged to uproot old vineyards consisting of regional/local grape varieties and replace them with recognised European grape varieties. Growing demand for rootstocks of European grape varieties in all WBCs and ETCs has been reported by the FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization 2009). Macedonia,1 which is used as a case study in this chapter, is an EU aspirant country, and adjustments to match EU regulations and practices, including wine regulations, are considered to be the key to improving the competitiveness and environmental sustainability of the Macedonian wine sector. However, adjustments in the grape assortment in Macedonia may not necessarily be economically sustainable (Bozinovski, personal communication 2011).2 Moreover, it has not been proven to be appropriate for achieving higher farm efficiency, which is a key objective of the ongoing RDPs.