Revealed Comparative Advantage in the Global Citrus Market and Implications for South Africa

Abstract

This paper adopts the Normalized Revealed Comparative Advantage (NRCA) index and data for the period 1961-2013 to examine comparative advantage among the leading citrus exporters in the global market and draws implications for South Africa’s citrus industry. Results reveal that Spain was the most competitive citrus exporter throughout the review period. South Africa (SA) improved steadily over time from position four to position two, surpassing Italy and Morocco in the process. Morocco, which ranked between positions two and four, was also surpassed by Turkey, which improved from position ten during the period 1961-1965 to position three during 2006-2010. Trend analyses of the annual NRCA scores indicate that Turkey is on the verge of surpassing SA in terms of competitiveness. Broadly, the results indicate that SA experienced weakening comparative advantage during the apartheid era, owing partly to trade sanctions by several European countries. With the end of apartheid and the subsequent removal of the sanctions, the situation has vastly improved, further yielding a rise in SA citrus competitiveness in the global market.