Sophia Davidova

The International Competitiveness of CEEC Agriculture

The paper surveys the price competitiveness of agricultural production in Central and East European Countries (CEECs). It draws together empirical work conducted by tje authors and other studies that have estimated domestic resource cost (DRC) ratios for agriculture in various CEECs. The paper identifies that in general CEEC crop production is more internationally competitive than livestock farming. During the mid-1990s, wheat production in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia was internationally competitive. In contrast, during the same period, milk production was not internationally competitive. However, there is also a considerable degree of variation from country to country; very little of Slovenias agricultural production is internationally competitive. In the livestock sector the greatest problems lie where large herds have been broken up resulting in fragmented production. This has particularly affected beef and milk production. Considering variations in DRCs by farm type, larger private farms in Hungary and the Czech Republic are more internationally competitive than smaller private farms in crop production. If CEEC producers faced average EU prices for their traded inputs and output, most could be price competitive. However, conclusions should be treated with caution due to sensitivity of DRC ratios to changes in international prices and the choice of the shadow prices for non-tradeable inputs Copyright Blackwell Publishers Ltd 2001.

Potential implications for productivity of land reform in Bulgaria

Abstract This paper analyses the possible out-come for productivity of the post-1991 land reform in Bulgaria. Critical determinants are the proportion of landowners who attempt to create family farms, the pace of creation of new private producer cooperatives or farming companies, the relationship between farm size and productivity and the variables which strengthen or weaken this relationship. The discussion suggests that even after land reform the major share of land and output will remain on a relatively small number of larger farms, and, provided appropriate market incentives exist, the expected gains in technical efficiency from a less polarized farm structure will be reinforced by other factors including labour market, credit and technical change. Productivity in Bulgarian agriculture has the capacity to increase as a result of the land reform. Thus with the same resources there could be an increase in output, relieving worries about security of food supplies.