REVEALED COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE OF BRAZILIAN NATURAL HONEY EXPORTS

Natural honey is considered a valuable forestry product not only for biodiversity but also to its conservation functions. Besides, it is an important exported commodity. In this study, the performance of Brazilian natural honey exported products were evaluated with specific focus on determination of their competitiveness in the international market. This article aimed to calculate the Revealed Comparative Advantage Index (RCA) of Brazilian natural honey, from 2000 to 2015. The sources consulted are SEBRAE, IBGE, Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade and the United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database (UN COMTRADE). The methodological procedure used was Balassa’s Revealed Comparative Advantage Index in order to estimate the competitiveness measure. The results demonstrated that Brazil was competitive in natural honey exported products during the period from 2002 to 2015. Considering the outcomes, based on the indexes it is possible to affirm that Brazilian natural honey is competitive and the country displays enough positive characteristics and productive capacity to amplify its participation in new international commercial markets.