Animal Husbandry Export Measures Productivity: What is the Position of the Czech Republic?

Abstract

Efficiency, productivity and competitiveness are important indicators of any production process. Speaking of agriculture and, in particular, animal husbandry in the light of sustainable development context, the values of these indicators become of special importance. Since adequate and efficient usage of disposable labour, land and capital can play a crucial role in obtaining and preserving higher efficiency and productivity levels, the natural question arises - does any relationship exist between mentioned production factors and revealed comparative advantage? The main aim of this research is to evaluate the relationship between export-measured productivity and comparative advantages in animal husbandry of selected European countries. The benchmark is provided in relation to the Czech Republic. To analyse productivity of agricultural and, more specifically, animal production in the European countries selected for the analysis (based on available balanced data incorporating the period from 2005 to 2017), a decision was made to trace export performance of these countries recalculated with regard to a unit of core productive factors, such as land, labour and capital. Based on the foreign trade indicators (Gruber Lloyd index, RCA index), cluster analysis was conducted, in which individual calculation was used as an input variable. Subsequently, hierarchical clustering and Ward´s method were used. The evidence from this study suggests that the revealed comparative advantage of the countries is not determined primarily by the level of export-based productivity. The relationship between these variables is rather weak and very often negative, which indicates that productivity indicators do not play a significant role in the overall competitiveness of the monitored countries.