The impact of ten years of European Union membership on Hungarian agricultural trade

The main objective of this paper is to analyse the impact of European Union (EU) membership on Hungarian agricultural trade with the EU-27 in the period 2003-2013, based on our own calculations using the latest statistical data. We concluded that the agricultural orientation of Hungarian foreign trade and the export orientation of the agricultural sector have strengthened during these ten years. Hungarian agricultural trade with the EU-27 grew dynamically, with expansion of exports being accompanied by increasing import penetration. As a result of the three-fold export and import value growth, the EU-27 became the leading market for Hungarian export products (with an 80 per cent share) and the main source of imports (with a 91 per cent share). While, owing to low competitiveness, the Hungarian export commodity structure is dominated by raw materials and semi-processed goods, the import structure is rather diversified, though processed goods oriented. The share of the Member States that joined the EU from 2004 onwards has increased to almost 40 per cent in Hungary’s intra-EU agricultural trade, at the expense of the EU-15. Following a post EU accession deterioration, the balance of Hungary’s agricultural trade with the EU had improved to a record of EUR 2.7 billion by 2012.