EVALUATION OF THE COMPETITIVENESS OF FOOD SECTOR IN POLAND AGAINST THE BACKGROUND OF THE NEW MEMBER STATES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
Abstract
The enlargement of the European Union has contributed to development of foreign trade of agrifood products in the new member states. The improvement of the balance of foreign trade in these products in 2003-2007 was observed only in three countries, i.e. in Poland, Lithuania and Hungary, which were net exporters before accession to the EU. Only Poland has noted surplus in foreign trade in food products definitely highest and quickly growing. Poland also has been the largest exporter of agricultural products among the new EU member states (Hungary and Czech Republic occupy distant places). The assessment of competitiveness of foreign trade of agricultural products in the new members performed with the RCA (Revealed Comparative Advantages) in export to world market and Lafay’s index, has confirmed that Polish food sector is competitive on the world mar-ket. After the accession to the EU these indexes improved. The Polish food sector has been also more competitive than in the new member states, including Czech Republic and Hungary.
Keywords
competitiveness; food sector; foreign trade; comparative advantages; European Union
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