Explicative Factors Driving the Tomato Consumption in the Mediterranean Basin: A Panel Data Approach

This chapter studies the consumer behavior of the tomato market in six Mediterranean countries, four of them belong to the European Union, EU--Spain, France, Italy, and Portugal, one to North Africa--Morocco, a highly competitive market with a major trade agreement with the EU since 2004, and another in Asia--Turkey. The main objective of the chapter is to analyze which are the most important explanatory factors, of a series of 13, that explain tomato consumption in the Mediterranean Basin. These factors, which are assumed as significant, are analyzed with an approach that uses panel data (fixed effects) models, a type of models that has clear advantages over the traditional methodologies. The results show significant differences between countries, that there are empirical evidence between consumption of tomatoes and price, imports and exports, production, growth area, technological developments and euro-dollar exchange rate; some importance lies on the EU-Morocco trade agreement; less empirical evidence was found between consumption and the exchange rates of the Turkish and Morocco currencies (Turkish pound and the Morocco dirham).