Competitiveness of agri-food foreign trade in conditions of the Slovak Republic

Anna Látečková,Jozef Palkovič,Ivan Holúbek,Michaela Trnková

doi:10.5219/1686

Abstract

The presented paper aims to evaluate the development and competitiveness of agri-food foreign trade of the Slovak Republic for the period 2016 – 2020. In the article, we present the priorities of Slovakia within the commodity structure. We use the RCA indicator to identify comparative advantages. In this paper, we also compare the actual and estimated development of agri-food foreign trade of the Slovak Republic in the years 2018 – 2020. Based on the reached results, we can state that we achieve an ever-increasing trade balance deficit in agri-food foreign trade. Produced results confirmed all the research assumptions presented in the paper. Despite the increase in export and import of agri-food products, the negative trade balance is still deeper. A significant deviation of real development from the predicted values can be explained by the influence of the worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus COVID-19, which slowed down the possible further development of agricultural trade.

Highlights

Competitiveness is a concept that has attracted a great deal of attention from economic theorists for decades
MATERIAL AND METHODOLOGY In the presented paper, we evaluate the agri-food foreign trade of the Slovak Republic for the period 2016–2020 based on numerical data obtained from the website of the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic
The turnover of food and agricultural raw materials has a special place in international trade because domestic food adequacy and the ability to sell surplus food on foreign markets characterize the country's level of food independence and the qualitative structure of its foreign trade (Maslova, Chekalin and Avdeev, 2019)

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Competitiveness is a concept that has attracted a great deal of attention from economic theorists for decades. Following the set partial goals, the following research hypotheses were formulated: H1: Based on the forecast of the trend of the further development, we assume an increase in exports and imports in the foreign agri-food trade of the Slovak Republic in the period. H2: Despite the expected increase in exports and imports in the period, we expect further deepening of the passive balance of foreign agri-food trade in the Slovak Republic. H3: We assume that the actual development of exports and imports of foreign agri-food trade in 2020 will be lower than the values forecasted based on its trend. Statistical analysis In this paper, we will compare the actual and estimated development of agri-food foreign trade in the Slovak Republic in the years 2018 – 2020.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Plant products

CONCLUSION