Similarity and Competition of Polish Agri-food Export with the Largest Agricultural Producers in the EU. Analysis of EU, US and China Market

Abstract

Poland is one of the largest agricultural producers within European Union (EU). Since joining EU in 2004, Poland has significantly increased its agri-food trade turnover and strengthened its net exporter standing in this regard. With the understanding that countries exporting similar goods to a specific market can be considered competitors, the examination covered similarities in Poland’s export of agri-food products compared to the two largest agricultural producers in EU, namely Germany and France, in three markets: EU-28, China and United States. The agri-food export was analyzed in terms of structure, value and quality, using ComExt data. The growth of the Polish agri-food trade following the accession to the European Union, allowed the country to become a competitor to the common market’s biggest agricultural producers. Poland’s competitiveness in the US market in relation to Germany is also rising. On the other hand, looking at the Chinese market, the value of the exported agri-food products is too low to consider Poland a major competitor to Germany or France. Poland’s competitiveness in the trade of agri-food products is relatively well covered in the literature, but the studies usually focus on the issue of volume and structure or comparative advantages. The export similarity is omitted, in particular with regard to Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC) and to quality similarities issues. The study also suggests a way to identify countries similar in terms of export structure that is based on entire population results. This study fills in a certain research gap that emerged in the context of CEEC, consisting in the analysis of Poland's export in the background of EU’s largest agricultural producers.