Market Competitiveness And Consumer Acceptability Of Polish Manufactured And Agricultural Exports To African Countries: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

Over time, Africa has been regarded as a major destination for manufactured (industrial) goods from the United States and Europe, thus creating huge competition for Polish export goods in the African markets. But, there is the need to know the level of competitiveness, the comparative advantages and the import parity prices of these export goods in the African markets so that their performance and acceptance could be measured, especially, among the consumers. Consumer acceptability of goods is often hinged on the perception of quality, price competitiveness, and derived satisfaction from their consumption, among other factors. Specifically, the objectives of this study were to determine the level of market competitiveness for the selected Polish manufactured and agricultural exports in African markets. It also examined the level of comparative advantage and consumer (market) acceptability of Polish goods exported to African markets. Twenty–year secondary data on Africa's major manufactured and agricultural imports (2005-2022) was used and trade competitiveness index measurements, Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) index, Import Parity Price (IPP) Analysis and descriptive statistics were used.

Findings showed that there was a strong competitiveness for agricultural exports from Poland to Ghana while Egypt had strong export trade competitiveness in mineral fuels, lubricants, boilers, machinery and appliances, vehicles, aircraft parts and vessels with Warsaw. The Revealed Comparative Advantage indices indicated that Poland had the highest export trade relations with Nigeria in live animals and animal products and least in foodstuffs and beverages. Overall, Poland had the best bilateral trade relations with the Republic of South Africa and the worst with Kenya. Similarly, foodstuffs and beverages, with the highest total value of $353,498.0 were exported by Poland to the Egyptian market while the least quantity of the items, valued at $14,550.4 million, were exported to the Kenyan market within the same period. Nigeria had impressive import parity prices (IPP) in maize, frozen chicken, turkey, and commercial boiler while South Africa and Egypt had better IPP in rye, and frozen turkey respectively. Generally, all the six African trade partners were favoured in the commercial boilers exchange with Warsaw. In conclusion, the Polish government has realized that the African markets are veritable business destinations for its products in recent times. To fully maximize and reap the benefits of these markets therefore, there is the need to minimize the artificial trade barriers, and bureaucracies in trading, and ensure the provision of moderate grants to support African governments' export drives with Warsaw. It therefore recommended that Poland should invest more in the export of live animals and animal products to Nigeria. Such investment could be extended to commercial animal ranching under an intensive management system with a modern agribusiness management touch and supply value chain which can create huge job opportunities and increased household incomes in Nigeria and thus jack up the foreign exchange earnings of Poland.