Diversity of the international competitive performance of the food industry of the European Union member states

The objective of the study is to fill in gaps in research in the area of multifaceted evaluation of competitive performance of the food industry in European Union member states. The study involved calculation of the export share in the world market, the ratio of shown comparative advantage, the ratio of coverage of import with export and the Grubel–Lloyd index and then construction of a synthetic measure of international competitiveness in the years 2009–2012. The group of the states with a high competitive position of their food industry included the Netherlands, France, Spain, and Denmark. In the case of the Netherlands and France, this fact was determined, above all, by their high share in the export world, and in the case of Spain and Denmark, their significant comparative advantage. A considerable market share was also characteristic of Germany, which was ultimately classified as a country with a medium competitive position due to a relatively small importance of the industry in the entire export of this country. [EconLit Citations: F14, L66].