Competitiveness Analysis of the Romanian Agri-Food Sector

The objective of this study is to assess the competitiveness of Romanian agri-food products on the world market, taking into account the use of land related to those products, using specific indicators. The central research question is whether the land is cultivated with crops that are globally competitive, what happens to the value of exports. To calculate the competitiveness of agri-food products the Balassa index is calculated. A detailed analysis of this index showed that there is a high performance for tobacco, barley, maize and wheat. However, for other agri-food products that are not export competitive, the size of arable land is quite large. The paper also proposes some structural changes in agricultural land use to encourage the cultivation of export-competitive products. However, these changes may affect food security and diet diversification, and it is therefore recommended that greater attention be paid to the use of such arable land.