Vplyv vstupu Slovenskej republiky do Európskej únie na agropotravinársky sektor a na ceny potravín
IMPACT OF SLOVAKIA ACCESSION TO THE EUROPEAN UNION ON AGROFOOD INDUSTRY AND FOOD PRICES

Summary/Abstract: The paper is presenting preliminary outcomes of two particular segments of policy analysis work, which has been performed since a couple of years in the RIAFE (Re-search Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics) on the assessment of sectoral impacts of the oncoming EU accession of Slovakia: One is the price impact of accession related to farm-gate prices of the main agricultural commodities and to the food consu-mer prices, the second one refers to the possibly changes in the farm sector’s income after the implementation of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The authors have used a modelling approach. The modelling procedure is described in chapter 1 of the body. For the current deviations in terms of prices and farm incomes between Slovakia and the EU-15 the existing policy gap between both entities is partly responsible (when neglecting the divergence in the overall economic performance). The level of producer support is in Slovakia approximately three times lower than in EU-15 – when related to production – and about five times lower, when related to agricultural area. The Slovak support system relies predominantly on budgetary transfers. The share of market price support (MPS) has been very low during all years of transition. In 2001, MPS was less than zero. In the EU-15 the dominant support is the market price support, which is paid by consumers and as such less visible to the public. In 2001, fiscal trans-fers to agriculture and food amounted to 12.3 bill. SKK (USD 261 million) and made up for 4.9 per cent of state budget expenditure. The same year, in terms of OECD methodo-logy, the support of the farm sector was in its entirety born by budget allocations. The relatively high market price support in the EU contributes to the current price gap, which would disappear after Slovakia joining the Union. During the recent period, prices of the Central Market Organization (CMO) crop commodities have been outstripping those in the Slovakia by approximately by 40 per cent. A similar difference may be observed in case of livestock products, with strong product-by-product deviations; e. g. the price gap has been not true for pork, but it was very significant for beef. For crops the average price increment as an effect of accession may be expressed by index 119 and for livestock products by index 125. Price differences on producer level are than reflected on the consumer level. Accor-ding to our data (Table 7) consumer prices of some selected comparable food items have been in Germany by 50 to 100 per cent above the prices in Slovakia. The sudden change of the price level after the adoption of CAP in Slovakia is one among the public concern related to accession.

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