摘要：Pequi is a native fruit that has relevant nutritional potential and plays an important role in the generation of employment and income in the places where it occurs. Therefore, this study aims to measure the technical efficiency scores of pequi extractivists of the state of Ceará. In order to achieve the proposed goal, the data envelopment analysis model (DEA) has been employed. The data are of primary nature, collected in 2013, directly with a sample of 86 pequi extractivists located in the municipality of Crato, in the state of Ceará. The results indicated that the pequi extractivists of the state of Ceará can reduce, on average, the costs with raw materials in 72% and 21%, respectively, in the models with constant and variable returns to scale, without compromising the production. In addition, it has been observed that, about the assumption of the model with constant returns to scale, the majority of the extractivists showed efficiency scores below 0.5, however, when one includes a convexity restriction, the majority of the extractivists obtain optimal efficiency level.
