The impact of the Russian embargo on the development and specialization of agri-food trade between Slovakia and Russia

Abstract

The paper examines and evaluates the impact of the Russian embargo on the development and specialization of agri-food foreign trade between Slovakia and Russia through the evaluation of the one-factor Lafay and Grubel-Lloyd indexes. As a result of the application of the Russian embargo on imports of agri-food products, based on the calculation of the indexes, we can state that the degree of specialization of Slovak agri-food foreign trade has changed. Although in 2013 Slovakia specialized in exporting a relatively wide range of agri-food products, in 2020, their number decreased. Also, in 2020 there was no overall increase in the volume of mutual trade. In general, Slovakia's exports to Russia decreased compared to 2013. The following factors have contributed to this situation: substantial attenuation, that is, the elimination of Slovak agri-food exports to Russia based on the impact of the Russian embargo with side effects and an increase in imports from Russia but not in absolute but relative terms in the context of its comparison with Slovak exports.

Keywords

• agri-food foreign trade embargo
• grubel-lloyd index
• lafay index
• slovakia
• russia