Technical efficiency in Egyptian tilapia aquaculture: evidence from a double bootstrap DEA analysis

Egypt is the world’s third-largest tilapia producer, yet farm-level economic evidence on what drives productivity in the sector remains sparse. This study applies the Simar-Wilson double bootstrap Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to cross-sectional data from 364 semi-intensive tilapia farms in Kafr El-Sheikh, producing the first statistically robust efficiency benchmark for the sector and examining two organizational dimensions rarely explored in aquaculture efficiency studies: individual pond size and the number of separate ponds operated. Bias-corrected efficiency scores are regressed on farm and farmer characteristics using bootstrap truncated regression. The mean bias-corrected efficiency is 0.50, indicating that farms on average could reduce input use by 50% without any reduction in output. Longer production cycles and monoculture farming are associated with higher efficiency, while larger pond area and more years of farming experience reduce efficiency. The number of ponds operated has no significant independent effect, placing the management constraint at the individual pond level.