Development of Intra-industry Trade as a Measure of Competitiveness of the Polish Food Sector

This article aims at analysing the significance of the intra-industry trade in the Polish foreign trade in agri-food products and assessment of the competitiveness of the Polish food sector on this basis. The analysis uses, first of all, the index introduced by Grubel and Lloyd (hereinafter referred to as GL index), which is a commonly used indicator of intra-industry trade intensity and one of the measures of international competitiveness. The analysis showed that in the period of Poland’s membership in the European Union the foreign trade in agri-food products noted a significant boost and the competitive position of Polish food producers improved on the international scale. At the same time, the intensity level of intra-industry trade in these products increased considerably. In 2001-2011, the importance of intra-industry trade in the Polish agri-food trade increased by over 14 percentage points. Consequently, in 2011 almost 50% of the trade in agri-food products was intra-industry trade. A predominant part of this exchange was horizontal intra-industry trade, including trade in goods differentiated in respect to a given industry that were relatively highly processed and showed a high level of substitutability between each other. The intra-industry trade in differentiated products of lower level of processing was less intensive. These products included agricultural raw materials and homogeneous products. Moreover, as regards the food sector a quite significant part was played by vertical intra-industry trade, including re-export, i.e. export of finished goods manufactured form raw materials imported from other climate zones. The growing intensity level of intra-industry trade in agri-food products is one of the markers of high competitiveness of the Polish food producers.