Abstract
The trade between the Arab States (21 countries) and the EU countries represents the largest proportion of their total trade with the whole world. It amounted to more than 60% in 2011. Therefore, the EU markets remain the first priority in achieving competitiveness for the agricultural sector exports of the Arab countries. The study targeted a comprehensive evaluation of competitive agricultural exports through a multi-staged model. The first included design and implementation of an index for agricultural development as a geometric means of four sub-indices: Agricultural Resources Index, Agricultural Productivity Index, Labor Employment Index in Agriculture, and Agricultural Foreign Trade Index. The identified four Arab countries with the highest agricultural development index score were Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt and Sudan.
The exported food commodity groups, from the identified Arab States to EU Markets, that recognized values of the RCA index above one along the years 2015 and 2016 were selected. These were fruit and vegetable exports of Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco, fish exports of Morocco and Tunisia, and sugar and honey product exports from Egypt and Sudan.
Fruit and vegetable exports of Egypt and to the EU achieved a more stable comparative advantage than Tunisia and Morocco. However, Tunisia achieved a more stable comparative advantage than Morocco. The stability of the RCA index of fish exports to the EU market was higher for Tunisia than Morocco. Although Sudan showed high comparative advantage in exporting sugar products to the European market, it performed a high degree of instability compared to its rival Egypt. The study underlined the importance of coordination and integration of the export policies among the four identified Arab countries to raise their competitiveness in the European markets. As the four countries enjoy diversification in climate, water, soil resources and location advantages, they can establish joint venture projects for grading, packing processing, storage and transportation networks.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Akpaeti, A. J., Bassey, N. E., & Okon, U. E. (2014). Trend evaluation of agricultural export crops in Nigeria. International Journal of Food and Agricultural Economics (IJFAEC), 2(1), 165–175.
Ali, R. (1999). Food consumption in the Arabic states in the light of economic developments. Regional and international symposium on analysis and evaluation of national policies and programs affecting the consumption of food commodities, Cairo, Egypt.
AOAD: Arab Organization for Agricultural Development. (2018). Yearbook of agricultural statistics Arabic, 32, 131–431.
FAO, UN. (2018). FAOSTAT. www.fao.org
Frankel, J., & Romer, D. (1999). Does trade cause growth? American Economic Review, 98.
Martinez, G. V., & Garcia, J.-M. (2012). Assessing trade preferences for Moroccan fruits and vegetables with preferential entry price. Sustained project working paper no. (Wp03d10workingpaper 01 Morocco).
Soliman, I. (1992). Environment and food challenges and ambition. A seventh conference of agricultural economists from agriculture in a changing world, the Egyptian Association of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Club, Dokki, Giza, Egypt.
Soliman, I. (1999). Concepts of sustainable development. 8th Conference of agricultural economists-Egyptian Society of Agricultural Economics, Doki, Giza, Egypt.
Soliman, I. (2000). Arab states food security and global economic changes. The eighth conference of agricultural economists on: Agriculture and the challenges of the twenty-first century. Egyptian Association for Agricultural Economics.
Soliman, I. (2007). Efficient economic resources: The approach towards agricultural development in Arab states. Journal of Arab Economic Unity, 18(34), 21–46.
Soliman, I., & Bassiony, H. (2012). Egyptian agricultural exports competitiveness. L’Egypte Contemporaine, Revue Scientifique Arbitrée Quart Annuel De La Société Egyptienne D’ Economie Politique De Statistique Et De Législation, Caire, vol. 104, no. 505, pp. 5–40.
Soliman, I., & Mohammed, J. (1997). Consumption and marketable surplus of rice and corn under economic liberalization in Egypt. Zagazig Journal Of Agricultural Research, 25(6), 175–193. Issued by The Faculty Of Agriculture, Zagazig University, Egypt.
Thabet, B. (2011). National agro-food policies in Tunisia: A background paper. Work Package 2, Task TWP2T2, Sustained Project, FP7, EU.
World Bank. (2013). World development indicators. Washington, DC: World Bank.
World Integrated Trade Solution. (2017). https://wits.worldbank.org/, Statistics Division of WITS.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Soliman, I., Bassiony, H. (2020). Impact of Arabic Spring on the Competitiveness of Arab States’ Agricultural Exports to EU Markets. In: Mattas, K., Kievit, H., van Dijk, G., Baourakis, G., Zopounidis, C. (eds) Sustainable Food Chains and Ecosystems. Cooperative Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39609-1_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39609-1_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-39608-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-39609-1
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)