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The regional integration with the CEFTA significantly influenced the liberalisation of the market, which led to an increase in exports of agri-food products in the Western Balkan economies. The main objective of this paper is to examine the impact of the CEFTA on the export of agrifood products of Western Balkan economies on the global and regional markets. In this context, comparative advantages have been analysed, and the gravity model based on panel data has been estimated. According to the results, all the Western Balkan economies have comparative advantages in exporting on the international market. Results of the gravity model estimation showed that free trade agreements with the CEFTA positively affected the intensification of agri-food product exports. Western Balkan economies have similar economic development and competitiveness levels. Thus, reintegrating the market established by CEFTA affected the export of agri-food products.

Oil crops are very significant, both in the world and in Serbia. In terms of production, the three most important oil crops in Serbia are sunflower, soybean and rapeseed. Beside significant oil crops production, substantial quantities of oil are produced as well due to significant processing capacities in Serbia. Considering the fact that over the last few decades Serbian market has been characterized by integration with the international market and considering the actual market liberalization with the EU, CEFTA countries, Russia and others, this paper analyses production and export of oil crops with special emphasis on comparative advantages in the export of oil crops using the method of revealed comparative advantage. Also, the level of intra-industry trade is considered in relation to the international market, EU and CEFTA countries. The results indicate that oils have more significant comparative advantage on the international market, especially sunflower oil.

As the pork supply chain was perceived through three level of chain: agricultural sector, processing and distribution sector, the main objective of this paper was the estimation of the vertical price transmission in the pork supply chain in the Republic of Serbia for period 2008-2015. The analysis of the price transmission was related on the presence of the asymmetry and was estimated with AECM model. The results indicated the presence of the negative asymmetry in the price transmission and one of the main causes of the presence of asymmetry was the abuse of the market power by processing sector, i.e. slaughtering industry.

Trend of population growth and the need for greater production of health-safe food, on the one hand, and environmental protection on the other hand, affect the change of production technologies in agriculture. Challenges of modern agriculture are reflected in the growth of productivity, but also the long-term sustainability of the agricultural sector. It is indisputable that information technology (IT) has a direct impact on the productivity of agriculture, and as the ultimate goal leads to the growth of the profit of agricultural producers. Precise agriculture, the application of state-of-the-art technical systems for satellite guidance and automatic management, as well as the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) lead to yield growth, but also affect the rational use of inputs, which leads to reduction of adverse effects on the environment. Accordingly, the implementation of new technologies in agriculture is an important factor in improving agricultural production, as well as the potential for sustainable development of this sector. The units of observation in this research are Serbia and all countries of the European Union. The aim of this research is to determine the position of Serbia in relation to the countries of the European Union in terms of the dimensions of sustainable development of agriculture, as well as to consider the current level of application of information technologies in the agriculture of these countries. The paper analyzes a set of indicators of economic, ecological and social sustainability and their connection with the implementation of information technologies in agriculture. The results of the research indicate that the current application of information technologies in Serbia's agriculture, compared to EU countries, is modest, primarily due to the unfavorable educational structure of agricultural producers, as well as limited financial resources, which significantly impedes the process of IT implementation.

Pig farming is the second most important branch of livestock production according to value of agricultural production, while pork meat is the most widely eaten meat in Serbia. As the one of the characteristics of pig market is cyclicality in the movement of production volumes and prices which can influence on the imbalance in supply and demand and in price fluctuations, the main aim of this paper was to analyse pork market in Serbia. Namely, in order to identify factors that influenced pork supply and demand, and to determine the presence of cyclical oscillations on pork market, pork market in Serbia was analyzed with supply and demand functions and with Cobweb model. The results indicated that factors which influenced on demand for pork were: personal consumption, retail price of pork and beef. On the other hand, on the supply side the most important factor was the price of pork. The results also indicated that in analyzed period in Serbia existed convergent type of Cobweb model.

All CEFTA countries had very similar stages of economic development after World War II. Many of them were centrally-planned socialist economies and the political changes that have occurred in these countries in the late 20th century caused changes in the whole economic system, as well as in the agricultural sector. Aim of this paper is to compare economic performances of agriculture of these countries with former CEFTA countries (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia) which joined EU after 2004. The development performances of agriculture are considered according to the production and export performances of this economic sector, using a comparative approach. The results showed that there is a gap in development of agriculture between CEFTA countries and selected EU countries, so performances of agricultural sector are far from EU.

In accordance with the strategic aim of Serbia regarding European Union accession, harmonization with European Union rural development policy is an important issue for the creators of rural policy. Accordingly, the basic aim of this paper is to analyse the rural development level of Serbia in comparison to European Union countries, using multivariate statistical analysis. Factor analysis and cluster analysis are applied to extract three factors of rural development: the relative economic significance of rural areas, the general level of economic and agricultural development, and rural development. The results clearly show that Serbia has a lower level of rural development than European Union countries. Therefore defining adequate actions and mechanisms to achieve the policy aims of Serbian rural development is imperative.

The main objective of this paper is to identify market performances of oil crops in Serbia. In that context, development in the production and trade of main oil crops were analyzed. Sunflower, soybean and rapeseed are oil crops that are seeded on the largest areas in comparison with other oil crops, and have the biggest contribution in the value of agricultural production. This analysis used descriptive and comparative methods. Bearing in mind the increase of the world prices of oil crops, which is the result of a stronger increase of demand, as well as the importance of the oil crops in Serbia, there are more possibilities for Serbian farmers to enlarge land areas of oil crops in the structure of the agricultural production. Preferential trade agreements with the countries of European Union (EU), CEFTA, and other countries give Serbia the possibilities for strengthening of trade flows and also for additional utilization of processing capacities which this country has.

In the last decade trade agreement between Serbia and the countries of the CEFTA had the effect on increasing exports of the agri-food products in the countries of the region. On the other hand surplus in foreign trade with these countries has increased as well. Due to the extremely high share of exports of agri-food products in total export of Serbia to the market of the region, this paper analyzes the structure of export, the geographical allocation of export, as well as the competitiveness of the agri-food products in the countries of region. The comparative advantage of agri-food products in the countries of the region is calculated by Balasa index of comparative advantage and by Grubel-Lloyd's index of specialization in international trade. Using these indices more competitive agri-food products and markets, as well as potentials for further improvement of the competitiveness of the agri-food products in Serbia have been identified.

In the recent decades, the Danube Region countries profile their policies towards a more efficient way of exploiting the natural resources of the Danube basin. The Danube can contribute to a better integration of the countries, enhancing economic opportunities through diversification and promotion of rural development. The trend analysis in the agricultural sector of the Danube Region countries refers to the first decade of this century, and it begins with the determination of the agricultural importance in the overall economy. The development performances of agriculture in the Danube Region countries are considered according to the production and export performances of this economic sector, using a comparative approach. The agricultural production growth, level and growth of the partial agricultural productivities - labour and land, as well as the value of exports in relation to engaged labour and agricultural land, are analysed in such a context.

Permanent technical and technological innovations in agriculture, as a result of the 'Green Revolution', have increased the use of chemical inputs and have caused numeros of negative environmental effects. More emphasis on the agri-environment policies European union (EU) has given since the last decade of the twentieth century. The reform of The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 1992. - MacSharry reform and, later, Agenda 2000, CAP reforms in 2003, 'Health check' in 2008., and new reforms of CAP gives more emphasis on the integration of agricultural and environmental policies. In future, the support for agriculture will be based on decoupled direct aids, which will have the role of 'greening' the European agriculture, while rural development policy will maintain its prominence. With the prospect of the accession of Serbia to the EU, the elaboration and implementation of agri-environment measures and explicit requirements for farmers to use agrienvironment measures become highly important.

Crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian-Ukrainian war, and challenges associated with sustainable development have emphasized the need for local food to increase the food system's resilience. Therefore, this research analyzes the food self-sufficiency ratio (SSR) and revealed comparative advantage (RCA) of cereals in Western Balkan countries (Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, and North Macedonia) and compares them with the same indicators for all European countries. The methodological framework of this research examined the food self-sufficiency and macro-level competitiveness for cereals in Western Balkan countries, as well as in Europe. The results of the research showed that all European countries have higher self-sufficiency in cereals (109.12%) and higher revealed comparative advantage (2.21) compared to the group of Western Balkans countries (71.89%; 1.53), which have lower values of the mentioned indicators. The results of econometric modeling for the Western Balkan countries showed that GDP per capita negatively influences the SSR of cereals, and agriculture value added per worker and area harvested under cereals positively influence the SSR of cereals. When it comes to the influence on the RCA of cereals in the Western Balkan region, the critical influence is GDP per capita, political stability, and agriculture value added per worker, all of which positively influence the RCA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food loss and waste represents a global problem which is characteristic for all food supply chain sectors and all groups of countries. On average, every year one third of the total amount of food produced is lost or wasted, which indicates an extremely high level of inefficiency in the food supply chain. One of the key characteristics of food loss and waste is a wide range of ecological, economic and social implications, which is why this problem has become the subject of many national and global agendas. Although there is still no unique definition of the term food loss and waste and unique data collection methodology, many authors have researched this topic so far. Therefore, this paper's aim was to research the existing literature on the phenomenon of food loss and waste, as well as to observe trends of the amount of food loss and waste in the world and the EU. The results indicated that the differences between developed and developing countries have changed, and the amount of food waste in both groups of countries at the household level is now quite uniform. At the level of the EU, the household sector is also the largest generator of food waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Countries of Emerging and Developing Europe (EDE) significantly transformed their agri-food sector in the last decades, and it has specific implications for agricultural tendencies and the economy of these countries. This research focuses on the sources of growth of agricultural production in countries belonging to EDE, as the former communist countries classified by the International Monetary Fund. This group of countries is particularly interesting because there is room for further growth in agricultural production, which can be crucial in times of crisis. This article's main objective is to estimate agriculture's production function and analyze the relationship between agricultural output and used inputs. Based on data for the period 2008 to 2019, results showed that the increase in the use of mineral fertilizers is a key source of production growth among production factors. Due to the economic importance of fertilizer use and its environmental effect, it can be concluded that agricultural policy must be created carefully in these countries to achieve a balance between economic, social, and environmental goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main goal of this paper is to compare the relative technical efficiency of agriculture in Western Balkan countries to those of the European Union and to propose ways to improve the position of Western Balkan countries. The group of Western Balkan countries includes Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Albania, which are candidate countries for European Union membership, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is currently a potential candidate. An input-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis model with the variable return to scale was applied to an 11-year period from 2006 to 2016. Input variables used in the model included labour, land, and capital, and the output was presented as the value of agricultural production. The highest average technical efficiency was achieved by the EU15 countries for the entire eleven-year period, while the Western Balkan countries had the lowest score. The source of this inefficiency was identified in lower levels of agricultural performance, e.g. a lower-level use of the primary production factors - labour and land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]