Creating and allocating the supply of agri-food products in European Union countries

The main purpose of this paper is to assess the importance of agriculture and food industry in creating and allocating the supply of agri-food products in European Union countries. The years covered by the analysis were 1995 and 2010. As demonstrated, there are differences in the contribution of imports to the supply of agricultural products among EU countries. Low shares of imports are particularly characteristic of the new member states, which is indicative of weaker connections with the European and global agribusinesses in comparison with EU-15 countries. On the other hand, the proportion between volumes of agri-food products allocated to intermediate and final demand confirm that the agricultural sector is primarily a supplier of raw materials in most EU countries. In turn, the main role of the food industry is to satisfy the final demand and provide the population with food products.