Measuring competitiveness in the EU market : a comparison between food industry and agriculture

Facing the growing competition in the European food market, the purpose of this paper is to assess European country competitiveness at the sector level in the intra-EU market over the last fifteen years, comparing the evolution of the food industry, where firms have had to reshape strategies to maintain market position, and agricultural sector, where changes in Common agricultural policy have forced farms to face market trends. The analysis of competitiveness was carried out by assessing trade indices (EMS, RCA, RXA, RMA, NEI). Cluster analysis was also run to classify groups of countries with similar features in terms of competitive performance over the 1991-2006 period. The country that profited most from market integration in both sectors, reaching a high level of competitiveness, was Spain, followed by Germany and Italy which gained competitiveness especially in the food industry. The United Kingdom had the worst performance, with a big decrease in indices, followed by France and Netherlands, still among the first but with lower indices.