HUNGARIAN AND SLOVENIAN AGRO-FOOD TRADE WITH THREE MAIN EUROPEAN UNION PARTNERS

The paper investigates revealed comparative advantages and competitiveness of the Hungarian and Slovenian agro-food trade in the three main European Union markets between 1993 and 2003. The Balassa index indicates that both countries have lost comparative advantage for a number of product groups over time. The results show that in Hungarian two-way agro-food trade the prevalence is on successful price competition and on successful quality competition. In Slovenian two-way agro-food trade the prevalence is on unsuccessful price competition and unsuccessful quality competition. The tests for consistency associations between the revealed comparative advantages and the competitiveness measures confirm similarities and differences in the results.