Competitiveness Index of EU Food and Beverage Manufacturing Industries

Abstract

The objective of this study is the analysis of the current state of the EU food and beverage industry’s competitiveness. The present study aims to derive a composite indicator (Industrial Competitiveness Index, ICI) for food and beverage competitiveness using data for 28 EU countries for the period 2008–2016 and to present and discuss the results for each of 10 food and beverage subsectors for each of 28 EU countries. Also, the analysis focuses on the comparison of the relevant results for the two periods 2008–2016 and 2003–2007 (from our earlier research) in order to draw conclusions about the effects of both enlargement of EU on the competitiveness index of food and beverage industry and the effects of economic crisis on competitiveness. Our results suggest that despite the substantial decrease of the indices, the “old” EU countries are the competitive leaders in the food and beverage industry.