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The presented paper aims to evaluate the development and competitiveness of agri-food foreign trade of the Slovak Republic for the period 2016 – 2020. In the article, we present the priorities of Slovakia within the commodity structure. We use the RCA indicator to identify comparative advantages. In this paper, we also compare the actual and estimated development of agri-food foreign trade of the Slovak Republic in the years 2018 – 2020. Based on the reached results, we can state that we achieve an ever-increasing trade balance deficit in agri-food foreign trade. Produced results confirmed all the research assumptions presented in the paper. Despite the increase in export and import of agri-food products, the negative trade balance is still deeper. A significant deviation of real development from the predicted values can be explained by the influence of the worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus COVID-19, which slowed down the possible further development of agricultural trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the current state of foreign trade in agri-food products based on the use of techniques and methods of statistical analysis. It was found that the export of these goods is developing most dynamically, as a result of which, starting from 2014, agricultural and food industry products become the main export product of Ukraine, and its share in the total export of goods reached 45.1% in 2020, which is much higher than a similar indicator for developed countries and indicates the presence of serious problems in other sectors of the economy. It was also noted that the export of these products provides the largest surplus in comparison with other goods, which affects the state of the country's trade balance. During the analysis, it was revealed that the basis of agri-food exports is plant products, mainly cereals and oilseeds, the sales of which are growing both absolutely and relatively, which indicates the predominantly raw nature of this type of activity. The study of the reasons for this nature of the commodity structure of the export of agri-food products shows that they are hidden in the peculiarities of domestic production. In agriculture, crop production is mainly growing. Livestock production, on the other hand, grows very slowly. There are serious problems in the food industry - insufficient production volumes, a limited range of products, and product quality, which is inferior to foreign goods, which explains the growth of imports of food products. A comparative analysis of the commodity structure of Ukraine and, less often, European countries shows that our competitors in the world market in their export policy are guided by the export of livestock products and finished food products, that is, products with high added value. In Poland and France, the sale of only these goods significantly exceeds the entire agri-food export of Ukraine. The paper emphasizes that the main way to improve the commodity structure is to increase responsible food production, which will increase the export of these products, reduce imports and increase the positive balance. On the basis of the conducted study, recommendations have been presented to improve the efficiency of foreign trade in agri-food products in Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the current state of trade of agri-food products of Ukraine and the EU. It has been established that in recent years, the EU countries have become one of the most important importers of agricultural and food products, which is associated with the operation of the free trade zone. It has been established that export to EU countries is complicated by an extremely limited range of goods. The basis of export is only eight commodity items: poultry meat, natural honey, wheat, corn, soybeans, rapeseed, unrefined sunflower oil and oilseed meal, which account for 83.0 -84.9% of the total exports. There is a tendency for the main EU partners to increase imports of plant products only. In the analysis of the export commodity structure, the prevalence of agricultural products was established, but its share is gradually reduced with an increase in food production. A comparative analysis of the volume of exports and imports was carried out for the goods of the four product sections, respectively, with UKTVED. The study shows that imports of animal products and prepared food products significantly exceed exports, despite the fact that in recent years, Ukrainian exports have been dynamically developing for these products. At the same time, products of plant origin and fats and oils of animal and vegetable origin form a constantly growing positive balance, which determines the results as a whole. The surplus for the period 2013-2017. increased by 2.6 times. The main causes of the formation of a negative balance for certain product groups have been investigated. The paper emphasizes that the main way to achieve a positive balance should be a substantial increase in exports, and not just a reduction in imports. Based on the analysis, recommendations are presented for increasing the production and sales of products of certain product groups in the EU markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes the development of the value, commodity and territorial structure and competitiveness of agricultural trade of the countries of the Visegrad Group in 1993-2008. Over the years, there has been a sharp increase not only to the volume, but also to the value of the traded agricultural products. The territorial structure of both exports and imports has narrowed to a decisive extent, primarily to the trade with the countries of the EU27. The commodity structure of agricultural trade has adapted very strongly both to the world and especially to the European market and it has furthermore reacted to the changes in the structure of the individual national markets. In the course of the years, the commodity structure has profiled so that there has been a limitation of aggregation with a strong comparative advantage on the market of the EU countries in relation to the aggregations that did not held this advantage. The analysis that has been performed indicates that the process of the accession to the EU has been reflected positively in the results of agricultural trade especially in the case of Poland. In the case of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the entry into the EU likewise has not led to a worsening of the results in the area of agricultural trade. Only in the case of Hungary, one does find serious structural problems after the entry into the EU in the case of agricultural trade. It can be assumed that these problems can be attributed for the most part to the Hungary's current economic problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]