Development of Agricultural Trade of Visegrad Group Countries in Relation to EU and Third Countries

Abstract

Despite the continually growing value of agricultural trade of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland, agricultural trade in the case of all of the countries of the Visegrad group represents only a marginal part of the total merchandise trade. The agricultural trade of the individual analyzed countries is, both in terms of the commodity structure as well as the territorial structure, very distinctly concentrated. The overwhelming majority of agricultural trade – export as well as import – je conducted in relation to EU countries. These countries participate in agricultural trade of individual countries of the V4 group with a share of over 80%. If we focus on the actual objective of the article, which was to identify the comparative advantages of agricultural trade of the V4 countries in the area of commodity structure and territorial structure, both in relation to the global market, as well as in relation to EU27, the following may be stated. The agricultural trade of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary as a whole does not have comparative advantages either on the global market or on the internal market of the EU countries. However, Poland as the only representative of the V4 countries has comparative advantages in the field of agricultural trade, in relation to both the internal market of the EU countries, as well as in relation to the global market (to the market of third countries). If we focus on the territory of the EU27 countries, which represents the main trading partner of all of the analyzed countries, both in terms of exports as well as in terms of imports, it may be stated that despite the fact that the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary do not have comparative advantages in the area of agricultural trade in regard to the EU as a whole, they are able to achieve comparative advantages at the level of bilateral relationships with individual member countries of the EU.This paper is part of a research project carried out within the framework of the grant no. 6046070906, funded by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic.