THE COMPETITIVENESS OF AGRICULTURAL AND FOOD PRODUCTS OF MOLDOVA ON THE FOREIGN MARKETS: ASPECTS AND TENDENCIES

Competitiveness has become a key issue on international markets since it can beconsidered as the major source of export development. A country that utilizes thebest its resources within its agricultural sector may benefit from comparativeadvantage on international agricultural markets. The paper analyzes the agriculturaland food trade of Moldova from different aspects of inter and intra industry trade.The aim is to estimate the trend and extent of inter and intra-industry trade inagricultural and food products of Moldova. The time series from 2001 to 2015 areexamined. Moldova’s share on agri-food exports is still large, but various changesoccurred in the total value and the geographical structure of trade flows during theanalyzed period. The analysis of competitiveness was through estimation of intra -industrial and inter- industrial trade indices (Relative Trade Advantages (RTA),Grubel-Lloyd (GL)). The obtained results indicate which agri-food products werecompetitive, which had relative advantages and a potential to increase itscompetitiveness. The level of intra-industry trade in agricultural and food productsfor Moldova is quite high (78%). The results of the intra-industrial trade levelindicated a decrease in European Union (EU) countries and increase in relationwith Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. For most commoditygroups the GL values presented average high variability over time, fact whichreflected the structural changes in Moldavian agri-food trade.