Development of agricultural trade and competitiveness of the commodity structures of individual countries of the Visegrad Group

Abstract

The paper analyzes the development of the value, commodity and territorial structure and competitiveness of agricultural trade of the countries of the Visegrad Group in 1993–2008. Over the years, there has been a sharp increase not only to the volume, but also to the value of the traded agricultural products. The territorial structure of both exports and imports has narrowed to a decisive extent, primarily to the trade with the countries of the EU27. The commodity structure of agricultural trade has adapted very strongly both to the world and especially to the European market and it has furthermore reacted to the changes in the structure of the individual national markets. In the course of the years, the commodity structure has profiled so that there has been a limitation of aggregation with a strong comparative advantage on the market of the EU countries in relation to the aggregations that did not held this advantage. The analysis that has been performed indicates that the process of the accession to the EU has been reflected positively in the results of agricultural trade especially in the case of Poland. In the case of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the entry into the EU likewise has not led to a worsening of the results in the area of agricultural trade. Only in the case of Hungary, one does find serious structural problems after the entry into the EU in the case of agricultural trade. It can be assumed that these problems can be attributed for the most part to the Hungary’s current economic problems.