Analysis of Turkish agricultural sector's competitiveness versus European Union using the revealed comparative advantages method

The European Union is the biggest trade partner of Turkey. Agriculture has a significant place in this partnership. In this study, the information about the historical development of The Turkish agriculture area, Turkey's relationships with the EU, the theories of the foreign commerce and competition, competitive capacity, determiners of competitiveness and method of measurement of competitiveness were given. The aim of this study is to determine the competitiveness of the Turkish Agriculture Sector against the EU by using the Revealed Comparative Advantages Method. The calculation methods of Balassa and Vollrath were used between 2007 and 2017 to identify this competitiveness. The data were obtained from the United Nations Statistics Portal and required calculations were computed by utilizing the SITC Rev 4 classification data. Comparisons were prepared for the entire agricultural sector and 22 selected sub-sectors. The Turkish Agricultural Sector has a comparative advantage over the EU. However, some of the selected sub-sectors have advantages and others have disadvantages over the EU.