While joining the European Union (EU) in 2004, the countries of the Visegrad Group (V4) had to face a major challenge in the context of adapting to the EU standards in the field of energy use and energy efficiency. One of the sectors that heavily depends on the use of energy (mainly from fossil fuels) is the food production system, whose energy transformation is essential for future food security. The study aimed to measure the use of energy and its structures in the food production systems of the V4 countries and the EU-15 countries in relation to the implementation of the EU energy targets. The targets assumed, among other things, a reduction in overall energy use and an increase in the share of renewables in the energy mix. The proprietary method based on the assumptions of lifecycle assessment was applied to measure energy consumption in the food production systems with the use of input–output tables and energy accounts, which are part of the World Input–Output Database. The research shows a decreasing share of the food production systems in energy use of the V4 countries, while in the EU-15 countries, it remains on average at a stable, low level (around 4.4%). The discussed share for Poland averaged 8.8% in the period considered, for Hungary 7.6%, for the Czech Republic 3.8%, and for Slovakia 3.3%. The share of renewables in energy use of the food production systems is growing. However, in some countries of the EU-15, it increases at a slower pace than the assumed strategic goals, mainly in the countries that are the largest food producers in the EU. For Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and Italy, the average deviation of the share of renewables use in the food production system from the 2020 target for the entire economy is around 12 percentage points. In the case of V4 countries, the share of renewable energy use in food production systems is close to the assumed strategic targets.

The projected increase in the world’s population requires an increase in the production of edible energy that would meet the associated increased demand for food. However, food production is strongly dependent on the use of energy, mainly from fossil fuels, the extraction of which requires increasing input due to the depletion of the most easily accessible deposits. According to numerous estimations, the world’s energy production will be dependent on fossil fuels at least to 2050. Therefore, it is vital to increase the energy efficiency of production, including food production. One method to measure energy efficiency is the energy return on investment (EROI), which is the ratio of the amount of energy produced to the amount of energy consumed in the production process. The literature lacks comparable EROI calculations concerning global food production and the existing studies only include crop production. The aim of this study was to calculate the EROI of edible crop and animal production in the long term worldwide and to indicate the relationships resulting from its changes. The research takes into account edible crop and animal production in agriculture and the direct consumption of fossil fuels and electricity. The analysis showed that although the most underdeveloped regions have the highest EROI, the production of edible energy there is usually insufficient to meet the food needs of the population. On the other hand, the lowest EROI was observed in highly developed regions, where production ensures food self-sufficiency. However, the changes that have taken place in Europe since the 1990s indicate an opportunity to simultaneously reduce the direct use of energy in agriculture and increase the production of edible energy, thus improving the EROI.

In this paper, we aim to identify the intensity and nature of intra-industry specialisation in the global trade in citrus fruits. We used data from the United Nations Comtrade database. We performed both static and dynamic assessments of the intensity of intra-industry trade (IIT) by using the traditional Grubel-Lloyd index and the marginal IIT (MIIT) index, respectively. We also separated IIT into horizontal and vertical trade, and we verified the relationship between changes in the intra-industry pattern of trade and the level of comparative advantage gained by the largest producers and exporters of citrus fruits in the world. We used the revealed symmetric comparative advantage (RSCA) index to evaluate the level of international competitiveness. Conducting these analyses allowed us to fill the existing research gap by identifying the nature of IIT in products with specific quality characteristics but at a lower processing stage. The study's results indicated that the stronger the IIT or the more intensive shifts toward deepening the intra-industry specialisation, the lesser the comparative advantage of a country in the global export of citrus fruits. Nevertheless, the increased intensity of intra-industry specialisation does not always lead to a deterioration in the value of the trade balance.

Poland is one of the largest agricultural producers within European Union (EU). Since joining EU in 2004, Poland has significantly increased its agri-food trade turnover and strengthened its net exporter standing in this regard. With the understanding that countries exporting similar goods to a specific market can be considered competitors, the examination covered similarities in Poland’s export of agri-food products compared to the two largest agricultural producers in EU, namely Germany and France, in three markets: EU-28, China and United States. The agri-food export was analyzed in terms of structure, value and quality, using ComExt data. The growth of the Polish agri-food trade following the accession to the European Union, allowed the country to become a competitor to the common market’s biggest agricultural producers. Poland’s competitiveness in the US market in relation to Germany is also rising. On the other hand, looking at the Chinese market, the value of the exported agri-food products is too low to consider Poland a major competitor to Germany or France. Poland’s competitiveness in the trade of agri-food products is relatively well covered in the literature, but the studies usually focus on the issue of volume and structure or comparative advantages. The export similarity is omitted, in particular with regard to Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC) and to quality similarities issues. The study also suggests a way to identify countries similar in terms of export structure that is based on entire population results. This study fills in a certain research gap that emerged in the context of CEEC, consisting in the analysis of Poland's export in the background of EU’s largest agricultural producers.

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