Competitiveness Analysis of Selected Members of Commonwealth of Independent States and Turkey in Vegetables and Fruit Sector

Abstract

Our paper aims to quantify levels of competitiveness of the selected Commonwealth of Independent States countries(Belarus, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine) and Turkey in vegetables and fruit sector and sub-sectors during the 1995-2012 period with respect to world market. Because only these CIS countries have prolonged annual data for vegetables and fruit sector in this period, these countries are selected for our paper. Our paper uses export and import data obtained from UNCTAD database and the data set covers the period of 1995 to 2012. To investigate competitiveness of these five countries five indexes are calculated: The Relative Comparative Advantage Index (RCA), The Relative Export Advantage Index (RXA), The Relative Import Penetration Index (RMP), The Relative Trade Advantage Index (RTA) and The Revealed Competitiveness (RC). Our findings indicate that Moldova and Turkey have high comparative advantage in vegetables and fruit sector than Belarus, Russia and Ukraine with respect to the world market. The comparative advantage level of Turkey has decreasing trend during the 1995-2012 period. The import penetration of Moldova has been higher level than Turkey which can be said as her rival.