Introduction

The fruits of the forest, also known as berries (blackberry, strawberry, raspberry and cranberry), are species that, although they require considerable capital investments for their cultivation, their high profitability, the rapid return on investment, the high requirements of labor, the versatility in the production of fruits for consumption and the feasible export possibilities, make them crops with great agricultural potential.

Evidence of this was the annual growth of 21.8% of production during the period 2003-2016, in 2017 the production of berries at the national level was 390 239 tons (^{SIAP, 2017}) and at the international level the demand for these has also presented a constant increase. Mexico exports approximately 41% of its national berry production to the United States of America, Canada, and the Netherlands (^{SAGARPA, 2017}).

The states where the highest berry production is located are Michoacán, Jalisco, Guanajuato and Baja California (^{SIAP, 2017}). Berries are traditionally consumed in the northern regions of America and Europe; however, in recent years the world demand for these products has increased, which has promoted an increase in their production worldwide (^{González and Johnson, 2015}).

Mexico has a great productive potential of berries, together the states of Aguascalientes, Colima, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Michoacán, Nayarit, San Luis Potosí and Zacatecas, are capable of dedicating about 4 085 065 ha to these (^{SAGARPA, 2017}).

This productive potential led the Mexican government to promote the creation and modernization of these crops with techniques such as the incorporation of drip irrigation, the construction of greenhouses and the adoption of protected agriculture in order to increase the productivity of Mexican berries (^{Nieves et al., 2011}).

Evidence of the high profitability of the crop is the benefit-cost ratio, which determines the financial viability of a productive project, said ratio is 2.82 for the case of blueberry, 1.88 for raspberry, 1.82 for strawberry and 1.76 in the case of the blackberry; these relationships are higher than those observed in basic crops such as sugar cane and corn, which have a benefit-cost ratio of 1.5 and 1.2 respectively, this resembles the cultivation of berries with other crops that have a high export rate such as avocado, whose cost-benefit ratio is 1.84 (^{González et al., 2020}).

Jalisco has ideal climatic and edaphological conditions to produce strawberries, raspberries and blackberries, in addition to the fact that a large number of companies and associations such as Aneberries, Berrymex, Driscoll's dedicated to the national and international marketing of berries are established in that state, in order to guarantee phytosanitary security, promote and defend trade and open new markets for this type of crops (^{INEGI, 2020}).

Jalisco also has important export ports to China, the United States of America (USA), Japan and several countries in Europe, which are the main importers of berries at the national level (^{SIAVI, 2020}) and import of the necessary inputs for the production, packaging and distribution of said products.

Although the state of Jalisco has areas dedicated to the cultivation of the three types of berries, it was observed that in recent years there has been an increase in the areas destined for the production of raspberries and blackberries (Table 1), while the areas destined strawberry production decreased, with the raspberry crop showing the most pronounced growth, this behavior cannot be explained by its sale price to the producer, nor by the increase in yield caused by the creation and adaptation of new technologies these crops, so that other economic distortions could explain such behavior.

The importance of analyzing how government policies and imperfect market structures affect producers’ decisions led different authors to carry out studies that measured the competitive and comparative advantages of different crops; through the use of the policy analysis matrix (MAP) methodology, the results of which determine the current situation of competitiveness in agricultural activity and the policy instruments that affect it (^{Monke and Pearson, 1989}).

In 2004 a study was carried out to measure the evolution of the profitability and competitiveness of the red tomato in the state of Sinaloa (^{Hernández et al., 2004}), the results show that the crop had comparative advantages in the international market during the autumn-winter 1999-2000 cycle, which explained the decision of producers to produce and export this crop, in June 2011 a similar study was carried out for the cultivation of vanilla under different production systems (^{Barrera-Rodríguez et al., 2011}).

According to the results, the crop was negatively affected by economic policies such as taxes on inputs, interest rates and an overvalued exchange rate, reducing the profits of producers in the Totonacapan region, a last example is the study carried out with the objective of measuring the competitiveness of the wheat crop in Pakistan at the importer and exporter level (^{Anwar et al., 2005}), where the authors concluded that the crop had comparative advantages at the import level, however, it did not present any in export, which limited its production.

Based on the above and in the case of berries, it is thought that there were most likely economic distortions that benefited the cultivation of raspberries in the state of Jalisco, increasing its profitability and competitiveness with respect to the cultivation of strawberries and blackberries, favoring growth in their production. The objective of the study was to analyze and compare the profitability, competitiveness and comparative advantages of the raspberry, strawberry and blackberry crops of Jalisco, during the year 2017.

The justification for this study lies in the economic importance of the three crops for the state of Jalisco, this being the main producer of raspberries, the second in blackberries and the fourth in strawberries, whose area planted as a whole was 5 070 ha. with a value of 1 788 791.88 thousand pesos during 2017 (^{SIAP, 2017}).

Materials and methods

This study focused on the three most important types of berries: strawberry (Fragaria ananassa), raspberry (Rubus idaeus) and blackberry (Rubus ulmifolius), leaving aside blueberries (arandanos azules) and cranberries because these are shrubs whose production logistics is different.

The data available on the production costs of raspberry, strawberry and blackberry were used, coming from different sources, mainly from the Agrocost System published by Trusts Instituted in Relation to Agriculture (^{FIRA, 2020}), the National Information and Integration System of Markets (^{SNIIM, 2020}), the Bank of Mexico (^{BANXICO, 2020}) and different berry planting manuals published by the National Institute of Research, Agricultural and Livestock Forestry (^{INIFAP, 2020}), all for a production system with irrigation by drip, using improved seedlings and fertilization with agrochemicals for the 2017 sowing period (Table 2).

To determine the parity import prices, he referred to the United States of America as the country of origin of the different inputs used, specifically the state of Oregon which is the main exporter of blackberries to Mexican territory and California for strawberry crops. and raspberry, these prices of inputs and products were taken from the databases published by the National Agricultural Statistics Service (^{USDA, 2020}) and from institutions dedicated to the sale of agricultural inputs for those products for which there is no information in official sources.

The analysis method used to determine the degree of distortion in the profitability of berries was the MAP, which was developed at Cornell University (^{Monke and Pearson, 1989}), this allows to measure how distortions in the market affect the profitability and competitiveness of agricultural products, as well as efficiency in the use of resources in production systems.

The way in which the MAP measures the economic impact of failures in the market is by calculating the difference between the so-called private prices, which are those observed in reality, and the social prices, which are those that would exist if divergences did not occur in the market. The MAP is made up of three rows, which contain the cost, income and profit of the economic activity calculated with the prices existing in the market, called private prices, the second with the same indicators calculated with the prices they would have in the case of there should be no distortions in the market called economic prices or shadow prices and finally the third.

Where the divergences caused by the effect of distortions and policies are measured, in the case of the columns, the yields are obtained by multiplying the prices by the yield per hectare measured in tons, the costs are divided into two, the marketable that are those that can be acquired in the market and internal factors that are those that cannot be traded between countries or do not have an explicit price such as the depreciation of technological equipment, finally the profit which is the difference between income and costs (Table 3).

Where: A and E: income at private and economic prices B and F: costs of tradable goods at private and economic prices C and G: costs of internal factors at private and economic prices, D= A-(B+C) and H= E-(F+G) is private and economic profit, I= A-E, J= B-F and K= C-G measure transfers through output, tradable inputs and factors of production and L= I-J-K= D-H measures net transfers.

Once the necessary information on the technical coefficients, the prices of inputs and products at a private and economic level was compiled, three different MAP were created, one for each product analyzed. For this, the information was arranged so that tradable goods could be identified, which are all those production factors that can be acquired in the market and therefore have a price and internal factors, which are those used in production. of these products but they are not priced in the market; information on the cost of irrigation, the amount of wages required for agricultural activities, the activities carried out with machinery and other contracted services such as technical consultancies, hiring mobile toilets and others.

From the results of the MAP, transfers (subsidies and taxes), measured as the differences between private and economic prices, can be determined (8Table 4). The magnitude of these determines the degree of distortion in the market for different reasons such as government policies or the existence of imperfect market structures.

Of the coefficients obtained in this study, those that could explain the increase in the cultivated area of raspberry were and were analyzed and are the following: the nominal protection coefficient of marketable and non-marketable inputs, which measures the effect of the distortions in the price of inputs, is obtained from the ratio between the price of private inputs.

Which are those that the producer has to pay at the farm level, among the economic prices of agricultural inputs, which are those that should exist in the absence of distortions, if the coefficient has a value greater than the unit, it indicates that the producer pays a higher price than he should; in other words, inputs have a higher local price in relation to international markets, probably due to the presence of distortions in the domestic market, which is a deterrent to producers.

The effective protection coefficient, which measures the total effect of the distortions, considering the tradable inputs and the final product, is calculated by dividing the profits at private prices by the profits at economic prices. Analogously, a value above the unit indicates that the farmer is receiving a higher profit than he would have in perfect market conditions, since in this case the protection of both the product and the inputs generates a positive net protection, which represents profits for the producers.

The private cost efficiency ratio (RCP) is a relationship through which the profits created by agricultural activity are measured and it is calculated by dividing the internal factors by the income, discounting the costs of those products that have a price in the market, the reason for using private prices is because they are the ones in force in the market.

An indicator less than the unit expresses that extraordinary profits are being received, since, when paying the production factors, there is a residual in the added value, which is the remuneration for the management of the producer, while an indicator greater than the unit indicates that the activity is not capable of paying the factors of production and therefore not generated profits.

The cost efficiency ratio of internal resources (RCI), if the magnitude of this indicator is between 0 and 1, means that the value of internal resources (those that are not acquired in the market) used in production is less than the value of the currency earned or saved; this means that there is a comparative advantage in the domestic production of the country under analysis.

A value greater than unity indicates that the value of the internal resources used in production exceeds the foreign exchange saved, earned or saved, therefore, the country does not have a comparative advantage. A negative relationship indicates that foreign exchange is used in the production of the product that it is worth in the market. And the subsidy relationship which are: the social subsidy to the producer (SSP).

Which shows the proportional part that should be supported by the producer’s gross income to maintain the current level of private earnings in the face of a total commercial opening; the producer equivalent subsidy (SEP) which is the total divergence or net policy transfer, as a proportion of total gross income at private prices and finally the producer profit subsidy (SGP) which measures the degree to which private profits exceed economic profits (^{Lara et al., 2003}).

Results and discussion

The results obtained are presented in Figure 1 and 2, it is important to note that since the main insecticide used to control pests in crops has as active ingredient ‘paraquat’ (1,1” - dimethyl-4, 4”- bipyridinium) and the marketing of this agrochemical is strict, it was determined that there is no way to transport it without governmental contingencies that distort its price, so that a higher price will always be paid for the product.

Figure 1 Nominal and effective protection coefficients for improved, fertilized and pumped irrigation raspberry, strawberry and blackberry crops in 2017 for the state of Jalisco. 

Figure 2 Subsidy ratios for improved, fertilized, and pumped-irrigated raspberry, strawberry and blackberry crops in 2017 for the state of Jalisco.