Capital Stock Value Development in Relation to the New EU Countries' Agricultural Sector Development

Abstract

This paper will analyse agricultural sector development in individual new EU member states with emphasis on capital stock value development in agriculture. The main objective is to identify the relationship between capital stock value development, and agricultural sector performance in the individual analysed countries. The results of the analysis are as follows. The agricultural sector has significantly changed its structure and position within the national economy of individual new EU member states in the 20 years since the early 1990s. The size of the agricultural sector reduced in each of the analysed countries, resulting in a reduction in the value of the agricultural sector performance. Despite the significant reduction of the agricultural sector in many analysed, some became more efficient in terms of their agricultural sector performance. Individual country’s agricultural sectors became more effective and more competitive. Individual country’s agricultural sector size and performance development are closely related to capital stock value in agriculture. Both the agricultural sector structure, and agricultural sector production performance are closely related to available capital stock value. In line with the main objective of this paper, the most sensitive segments of the agricultural sector in relation to capital stock are livestock production, land development and the number of economically active persons in agriculture. Regarding sensitivity of agricultural production performance in relation to changes in capital stock value, the most sensitive are livestock production and non-food agricultural production.