ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE COUNTRY AND INNOVATIVENESS IN THE FOOD INDUSTRY COMPANIES - SELECTED ISSUES

The purpose of the article was to assess the innovation of the food industry in the EU Member States. Innovation of the food industry was compared with the level of economic development of countries, innovative enterprises in general, and the importance of the food industry of individual countries in the domestic economy and the EU. The analyzes were based on data from the Eurostat database. The results indicate the occurrence of the relationship between the level of innovation of enterprises of the food industry and the level of economic development of countries and the overall innovation performance of enterprises in the manufacturing sector. In this regard, we observed it in general as a priority for countries of the old EU. In the case of Germany, Italy, Belgium and the UK, it was also heavily associated with countries in the EU food industry. Estonia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Portugal were characterized by high levels of innovation of the food industry despite the relatively low level of GDP per capita and overall enterprise innovation.