International market structure and competitiveness at the malted beer: from 2003 to 2012

Abstract

Barley malt beer is the world's most consumed alcoholic drink and its industry represents a multibillion dollar international trade. Th e paper's main goal is to contribute with the analysis of this industry in terms of its international competitiveness and market structure. It utilizes the data regarding exports and imports for malted beer available in the International Trade Centre's Trade Map database and it refers to the period of ten years (2003-2012). Th e method used to expose the industry's competitiveness and market structure consisted in the calculation of (i) Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA); (ii) Relative Position of Market (RPM); (iii) Hirschman-Herfi ndahl index (HHI) and (iv) Net Export In- dex (NEI). Th e fi ndings show a high concentration for both the import and export markets and the detainers of the largest shares are: (1) the United States of America for imports and (2) Mexico, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany for ex- ports. It was possible to identify the players in the market structure based on exporters, importers and both importers and exporters, stressing their position in the market.