CONCENTRATION OF AGRICULTURE AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES OF EAST-EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

One of the main problems facing all countries at the European agri-food market is achieving agricultural specialization. Such specialization can bring additional advantages with regard to differentiation in the markets. In this paper we seek to identify the sources of competitive advantages of agriculture in Central and East- European countries. The primary purpose of our research is to identify newly emerging patterns of regional specialization within and across these nations, and to examine their effects on agricultural productivity, regional competitive advantages and international trade patterns. We draw on various public data sources to analyze the patterns of geographic concentration. To determine the level of the concentration we use the following group of indicators of regional specialization and geographic concentration: Herfindahl index, the dissimilarity indexes of specialization and concentration, Krugman specialization and dissimilarity indexes, and GINI coefficient of regional specialization. We expect that our results will be conducive to determination of the most efficient production patterns according to regional specifics and specialization