An Assessment of the Slovak Agri-food Trade Specialisation Pattern

The paper analyses the agri-food trade specialisation pattern in Slovakia prior to and after its accession to the European Union in the period 2000 - 2005. The most competitive Slovak agri-fbod commodities in trade with the examined trade groupings were consumer-oriented products. Degree of agri-food trade specialisation dropped over the period for all most important markets. At the same time, Slovakia did not maintain positions of the most competitive commodities; however, it improved positions of a number of previously uncompetitive ones. After 2004, the dynamics of previously rigid trade specialisation with the EU-15 and the New Member States of the 2004 EU enlargement accelerated. This is likely to lead to convergence of Slovak trade specialisation dynamics across trade partners/groupings.