Trade agreements with the European Union (EU) and Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) significantly influenced the liberalisation of agri-food products in Western Balkan (WB) countries. In all Western Balkan countries, there has been an intensification of the trade of agri-food products and a partial change in the regional and commodity structures of trade. This paper aims to identify comparative advantages of agri-food sectors and consider its tendencies during the EU integration process. Additionally, this paper will discuss some opportunities for improvement of the export positions of agri-food products. In that context and based on the literature review, the indexes of revealed comparative advantages and its modified version will be used as a main method for analysis in this research. Results showed that all Western Balkan countries, except Albania, have comparative advantages in exporting agri-food products. It is evident that Serbia has the highest level of comparative advantages in this sector. Moreover, this paper suggests that all countries should aim to provide the best possible positions for their agri-food products during pre-accession negotiations for EU membership and take the necessary steps towards increasing the level of competitiveness in the common EU market.

Improvements in productivity and efficiency, together with agricultural modernization, are crucial in the process of future sustainable development. As Western Balkan (WB) countries are in the process of integration into the European Union (EU), the importance of agricultural efficiency in an economic and environmental context and the actuality of the problems of the agricultural sector are very important. In that context, the paper’s main goal is to examine agriculture’s technical efficiency in the EU and WB. The additional goal is to group analyzed countries by agricultural performances. A stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) is used to calculate the technical efficiency of agriculture. Results have shown a significant difference in technical efficiency between WB and the EU. Furthermore, the cluster analysis has indicated the connection between overall economic development and agricultural development, partially “deformed” by agri-environmental and climate conditions. The exogenous factors do not have a crucial influence on the overall technical efficiency of agriculture in observed countries, indicating that the endogenous factors must be improved. The paper impacts recommendations for optimizing the use of inputs and improving the educations of farmers in WB countries to achieve economic and environmental goals.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine if the agribusiness sector can be an initiator of export on the emerging markets. For this aim, we analyzed export opportunities for the region of Vojvodina, the region in Serbia with the most potential for agribusiness.Design/methodology/approach: This paper uses the Comparative Advantage Index and the Index of Intra-industrial Integration to determine the region's level of comparative advantage and the market's level of integration on the main emerging markets.Findings: The results show that this region has the most competitive advantages in crop production – primarily in cereals and industrial plants – but the situation is not favorable for livestock production. Because of this, comparative advantage should be used as a factor for the growth of competitiveness in the sectors for which crop products are the raw material base. At the same time, agricultural policy measures should encourage more intensive agricultural production, which could create a better foundation for progress in the food industry.Research limitations/implications: Data collected on foreign trade at the level of statistical regions is not always reliable. Also, regional and local characteristics are specific to each country, so the ability to generalize conclusions is limited.Practical implications: This paper provides a useful review of the agri-food sector's competitiveness and determines which agri-food segments have competitive advantages. It is essential for policymakers to identify what determinants improve or degrade the competitiveness of the region's agri-food sector.Originality/value: Since there are a limited number of studies analyzing trends of competitiveness for the region's agri-food sector, the paper will contribute to filling this gap. Furthermore, the framework is conceptually innovative in identifying the determinants that create export opportunities for the region on the international market.

The right to food is a fundamental one, and the optimization between human needs and available resources is a challenge in all countries. The main goal of this study is to find the factors that determine food security and to determine the level of food security in the Western Balkans while undergoing the process of European Union (EU) integration. In order to achieve this, four Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) dimensions of food security are analyzed: stability, availability, access, and utilization. The Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluations (PROMETHEE) method is then used to rank Western Balkan and EU countries according to food security. The results show a significant difference among these countries in terms of their levels of food security, which is a consequence of Western Balkan countries’ significant lag in economic development in comparison to the EU. Although the level of food security in Western Balkan countries is lower than in EU countries, it is not endangered. However, it can become endangered under crisis conditions (like the COVID-19 pandemic). The main reasons for this discrepancy are high food supply variability, dependence on cereal import, and lower Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in these countries than in EU.

The sector of milk and dairy products in Serbia along the entire supply chain has been under significant challenges in recent years, especially in current crises. In this direction, this research looked at the supply chain of milk and dairy products by analyzing the primary production, the situation in the processing industry, and the international market’s competitiveness. Indicators of technical efficiency were used to analyze the situation on agricultural farms, while for the processing industry, the impact of various variables on profitability was evaluated using panel models. Furthermore, an examination of these products’ standings in the global market was conducted by assessing their revealed comparative advantages and integration index. The results of the research determined the level of technical efficiency of the producer, while the statistically significant influence of certain variables on profitability was determined within the processing industry. Additionally, the analysis showed modestly revealed comparative advantages in the international market but good integration with the international market. Finally, the sustainability of the milk and dairy products supply chain is highly questionable in crises, which will be a challenge for producers and policymakers.

Food loss and waste represents a global problem which is characteristic for all food supply chain sectors and all groups of countries. On average, every year one third of the total amount of food produced is lost or wasted, which indicates an extremely high level of inefficiency in the food supply chain. One of the key characteristics of food loss and waste is a wide range of ecological, economic and social implications, which is why this problem has become the subject of many national and global agendas. Although there is still no unique definition of the term food loss and waste and unique data collection methodology, many authors have researched this topic so far. Therefore, this paper's aim was to research the existing literature on the phenomenon of food loss and waste, as well as to observe trends of the amount of food loss and waste in the world and the EU. The results indicated that the differences between developed and developing countries have changed, and the amount of food waste in both groups of countries at the household level is now quite uniform. At the level of the EU, the household sector is also the largest generator of food waste.