European Union countries agri-food trade structures and main competitors on the internal and global agri-food markets

Abstract

The paper investigates the key insights of European Union (EU) member states agri-food export and import structures and main competitors in the internal and global agri-food markets in terms of geographical distributions and product coverage. The focus is on four agri-food product groups in global trade: fruit and vegetable products, grain products, meat products, and dairy products. The identification of the major competitors in internal EU markets and major EU competitors in global agri-food trade by calculating revealed comparative advantage indices show considerable differences by products and product groups, but in general the major competitors of the EU member states in the analysed global agri-food markets were particularly overseas countries such as the United States of America, Canada, Argentina, New Zealand, and Australia.