Title: Agro-food trade sustainability in Central and Eastern Europe

Authors: Stefan Bojnec, Imre Ferto

Addresses: Faculty of Management Koper, University of Primorska, Cankarjeva 5, Koper SI 6000, Slovenia. ' Institute of Economics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budaorsi u. 45, Budapest H 1112, Hungary

Abstract: The article applies recent methodological developments in international trade to evaluate agro-food trade sustainability in selected Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries with the European Union and their implications for sustainable agro-food sectors and rural development. Trade in bulk primary raw agricultural and wood commodities is found to perform the best and consumer-ready foods the least. The empirical results imply a clear sign of an inefficient agro-food trade adjustment for the analysed CEE countries, but with large variations across countries, by product groups and over time.

Keywords: agro-food trade sustainability; European Union; EU; sustainable economy; trade advantages; sustainable development; Central and Eastern Europe; CEE; rural development; consumer-ready foods; agriculture; wood.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSE.2008.020019

International Journal of Sustainable Economy, 2008 Vol.1 No.1, pp.100 - 112

Published online: 21 Aug 2008 *

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