Assessment of milk production competitiveness of the Slovak Republic within the EU-27 countries

Raw cow milk represents one of the most important commodity in the agricultural market. The Slovak agro-food foreign trade is characterized by a substantial increase in the commodity trade, monitoring of competitiveness is therefore very important. The aim of the article was to evaluate the current situation of breeding processes in the cattle production with focus to the raw cow milk production and dairy products; and to compare the competitiveness of the domestic supply with the EU-27 countries. To quantify the evaluation of competitiveness, mathematical and statistical methods were used. Indicators of the exposed comparative advantage (RCA); the competitiveness growth index (RCA 1); the net trade performance index (RCA 2); the indicator of relative import penetration (RMA); the indicator of relative export advantages (RXA); and the indicator of relative business advantages (RTA) were calculated. The research of the foreign trade competitiveness parameters of the aggregated group Milk (RCA, RCA 1, RCA 2, RMA, RXA; and RTA) showed that the Slovak Republic has a comparative advantage among the EU-27 countries in the commodity 0401 (milk and cream, not concentrated or containing added sugar or other sweeteners), in all other monitored commodities, a comparative disadvantage was determined. Based on the research, the ideas and recommendations for the agricultural policy and for the milk processors were formulated.