Revealed comparative advantage in Greek, post-crisis, agri-food trade

We examine the competitiveness of Greek agri-food exports during the Greek debt crisis. We employ the Balassa revealed comparative advantage (RCA) index and the Vollrath revealed competitiveness (RC) index. Changes in RCA and RC trends together with panel vector autoregression analysis (PVAR), allow us to discuss the dynamic relation of competitiveness and GDP and infer on policies to strengthen Greek agri-food trade. Results show that Greece has a revealed comparative advantage in many agri-food product categories, however, the 2009 debt crisis led to significant losses in competitiveness. Economic policy should target vegetable and foodstuff products to ensure quick recovery of competitiveness in the international markets.