The competitiveness of Czech agrarian trade within the context of the global crisis

Abstract

World trade underwent a significant shock within the recent years, which caused a decline in the world economy primarily in the year 2009. Within the following years (2010 and 2011), the high rate of growth from the years preceding the crisis could not be restored. The crisis had an impact on all segments of the merchandise trade, whereby the trade in agricultural and food products was affected the least by the crisis. In the case of the Czech Republic, the crisis of the global and national economy was reflected in the case of agricultural trade primarily by the way of a decline in the rate of the growth of export, which was very high in the period prior to the crisis. As far as the territorial structure and commodity structure of agricultural trade is concerned, their development in the years 2008–2011 was not affected in any largely significant manner. In relation to the main objective of this article, which was to identify the effects of the crisis on the competitiveness of Czech agricultural trade, it may be stated that the crisis itself did not worsen the competitiveness of agricultural trade in any significant manner.