ROMANIA'S AGRO-FOOD FOREIGN TRADE CONCENTRATION WITH THE EUROPEAN UNION COUNTRIES, 2013-2021.

The paper analyzed Romania's agro-food export, import and trade balance with the EU-27 countries in the period 2013-2021 using the empirical evidence from National Institute of Statistics. Fixed basis and structural indices, as well as Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI), Gini-Struck Index (GSI) and the Coefficient of Concentration (CC) were used to characterize the concentration degree of the agri-food trade. In 2021, export value accounted for Euro 5,471.8 Million, import value for Euro 8,459.7 Million and the trade balance registered a deficit of Euro -2,987.9 Million. The figures reflect an increase both in export and import, but import exceeded the export reflecting that Romania is a net importer of agro-food products. The highest market share in Romania's export is kept by Italy, Bulgaria, Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Hungary, France, Greece, Belgium and Poland, while the main import partners are Germany, Hungary, Poland, Netherlands, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, France, Greece and Belgium. The concentration degree both in case of export and import is small as proved by the values of HHI, ranging between 0.0845 and 0.0996 for export and between 0.1065 and 0.1106 for import. GSI values ranged between 0.2220 and 0.2406 for export and between 0.2687 and 0.2764 for import. CC values were below 0.5 also reflecting a competitive market. To diminish the dependence of imports, agro-food export has to be stimulated by the increase of agricultural production which has to provide more products with high value added and of a higher quality to enhance competitiveness, and also imports have to be revised and a better resource allocation is needed to strengthen internal production and cover better domestic consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]