THE COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGES AND COMPETITIVENESS OF HUNGARIAN CEREALS AND CEREAL PREPARATIONS ON THE MARKETS OF THE EU 15 (A magyar gabonafelek es feldolgozott termekeinek komparativ elonyei es versenykepessege az EU-15 orszagok piacain)

The article analyses the revealed comparative advantages, disadvantages and competitiveness of Hungarian cereals and cereal preparations on EU 15 markets. Hungarian and international literature tends to treat notions of competitiveness and comparative advantages together, although the differences between them are clear. Having looked at some theoretical considerations, the article draws several interesting conclusions about the competitiveness and comparative advantages of Hungarian cereals by applying the original and improved methodology of revealed comparative advantages devised by Béla Balassa in 1965. On the one hand, it becomes clear that Hungary had revealed comparative advantages in most cases on EU 15 markets, but most were based on raw materials. Furthermore, the methodology makes it clear that Hungarian cereals basically competed unsuccessfully on quality and successfully on price in bilateral trading with the EU 15 - which was decisive in the period analysed. It also emerges that the comparative advantages of Hungarian cereals turned out to be more stable than their competitiveness.