VISEGRAD COUNTRIES’ AGRICULTURAL FOREIGN TRADE DEVELOPMENT (TRANSFORMATION PROCESS)

Changes in the territorial and commodity structure of agrarian export trade of countries of the Visegrad Group in the period 1993–2008 were identified and analyzed. The paper concludes that in recent years, both the value and volume of Visegrad countries’ export and import operations have increased significantly. In the case of exports, individual countries have managed to increase the volumes of its exported finalized products. The share of the current EU members in the value of the Visegrad Group agricultural trade is increasing at the expense of trade with “third countries”. EU accession and its common market forced all analyzed Visegrad Group countries to modify their export commodity structure, and most of them (apart from Hungary) have been able to export finalized products with higher unit prices to the EU market. It is expected that with the intensification of the Visegrad Group’s integration within the EU single market, prices of agrarian exports will rise further on. The members of the Visegrad Group of countries are going through a gradual process of specialization of exports in a limited number of aggregate commodity groups. Various specific factors might cause an overall restructuring of the agrarian sector and foreign trade activities in these countries.