ISHS Acta Horticulturae 340: XII International Symposium on Horticultural Economics
DEVELOPMENT OF GERMAN HORTICULTURAL IMPORTS FROM NON-EC9 COUNTRIES |
| Authors: | B. Möhlendick, A. Siguan |
| Abstract:
Germany is the world's first importer of horticultural products. For many developing countries the horticultural market plays an important role for their trade balances and for the three most recent Mediterranean EC members it represents one of the most competitive within their agricultures. Both groups seem to be competing in the German market subject to different agricultural policies of the importing country. This paper analyses Germany's import growth and its sources between the late seventies and the late eighties decomposing it into four causal factors, which are: the regional preference towards exporting third countries, their international competitive ability, the development of the share of non-EC countries in German imports and the total growth of German horticultural imports. The analysis shows, that the steady German import growth has favoured all studied country groups considerably. For most of the developing countries the positive development has even been strengthened by the preference for non EC countries, which is only negative for processed products, and also the world export share of many developing countries has increased, but the regional preference for exporting third countries has been rather negative. For the group formed by Spain, Portugal and Greece, all effects show a positive sign, Spain is the country with the most significant gains of shares in the German market. The evolution of imports seems to be rather influenced by the preferences from the trade sector and the consumer sector, than by EC protection policy. | |
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