Trade advantages and integration of Croatian, Hungarian and Slovenian agro-food trade with the European Union

Abstract

The article investigates the revealed comparative export advantage, relative import specialization advantage, relative trade advantage, intra-industry trade and its quality types in agro-food trade of Croatia, Hungary and Slovenia with the European Union (EU) market. The empirical results confirmed bulk of agro-food and forestry products with revealed comparative export advantages on the EU markets for Hungary and to a lesser extent for Croatia, but except for some niche products less for Slovenia. Hungary and Croatia have faced difficulties to sustain revealed comparative export and relative trade advantages in higher processed consumer-ready foods and processed intermediaries. Improvements in intra-industry trade for agro-food products are identified for Hungary and to a lesser extent for Croatia, but less for Slovenia. Competitive trade abilities on the enlarged EU markets cause roles of agro-food sectors in employment and income activities of rural areas that are under increasing competitive pressures for agro-food sector restructuring and rural economy diversification.