Supply of Materials to the Agribusiness Sector of European Union Countries

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to assess the prevailing relationships in the supply structure of the agribusiness sector in European Union countries over the years. The study focused on 25 European Union countries (Cyprus, Luxembourg and Malta were excluded) to address the changes in the supply structures of agriculture and food industries, the two major components of agribusiness. The study was of a dynamic nature. Although the study period was 2000–2014, this paper only presents the figures for the first and the last year, i.e. 2000 and 2014. The main focus was on drawing conclusions on the trends observed which proved to be relatively stable in the years covered. The input–output analysis was used by aggregating the sectors of the economy for a better transparency of the inference process. As shown by this study, EU countries at higher development levels witness a decline in the share of the chemical industry in the mix of goods and services supplied to agriculture. Conversely, less developed countries saw that ratio increase. Also, the share of goods supplied to agriculture from the fuel and energy sectors goes up in most EU countries. As regards the food industry, this study observed high shares of agriculture, services and self-supply in the supply structure of EU countries. This analysis extends the existing knowledge on the relationships in the structure of materials supplied to the agribusiness because in addition to agriculture itself (which was addressed by similar studies found in literature) it takes account of the food industry. Moreover, based on long-term observations, it endeavors to capture the prevailing relationships in several countries at a time.