THE AGRI-FOOD INDUSTRY IN GREECE: REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PROSPECTS

Benefiting from its favorable climate conditions and rich natural resources, Greece has long been fairly reliant upon the agri-food industry, traditionally agriculture and fishery, mainly for self-sufficiency purposes. More recently, efforts capitalize primarily on economic activities that could accelerate national and regional growth through external trade. The need for improvement in agricultural production has become even more urgent, given the negative impact of both the economic and pandemic crisis, highlighting that the Greek economy cannot depend solely on the monoculture of tourism. Hence, the aim of this paper is to analyze recent trends and future prospects of the Greek agri-food industry, on both national and sub-national levels, in order to determine the product categories which are most prominent for further development in different areas. Economic data, extracted from the Hellenic and European Statistical authorities, refer to national and regional production and external trade for the period 2005-2019. Main results show that, despite an increase in exports, agricultural production as well as agri-food manufacture remain relatively stagnant, while in some cases the negative trends are consistent. In terms of production and processing, the most promising product categories are fruits, vegetables and plants, and animal products. Domestic trade and services declined, suffering the effects of the economic crisis, while a strategic shift towards exports is salient, accompanied by respective reinforcement of the framework for agri-food marketing, research and innovation, as well as regional specialization. Regional performance is variant, capitalizing mostly on natural resource endowments, history and tradition. Exploring the prospects of increasing the added value of agricultural production, substitution of some imported products with domestic production, as well as regional specialization in high-quality local products are some of the strategies that could act as a good practice for the corresponding adjustment of national economic strategies along the Balkans.