The “Sophistication” of Agri-food International Trade: Switching the Concept to Imports

This work introduces a new measure of import sophistication (Consy). We contribute to the literature by defining the index and by assessing its sophistication content. The index is calculated for a set of agri-food items. Estimating a regression model for these items shows a significant correlation between the Index and a set of sophistication attributes. The Consy values indicate that rich countries play a major role as importers of goods for final consumption. Furthermore, the Consy ranking shows that higher value-added and more complex items are imported mainly by richer countries with respect to low-value, less processed and/or less complex goods. Consy dynamics is also studied Results show that in the studied period food imports partially relocated in poorer countries while a general increase of per capita GDP contributed to a positive shift of the Consy