Triangulation Applied to the Intra-European Union Tomato Market

Abstract

An understanding of the intracommunity trade is essential for the agents involved in the fresh tomato market (farmers, entrepreneurs, public administrations, and consumers). The purpose of this paper is to analyze the interdependent relationships between exporting and importing countries within the European Union for a specific product such as fresh tomatoes and thus understand which have been the key countries in three specific years (2002–2007–2017). The methodology used to study the interrelationships of trade flows in the countries of the European Union (EU) is that of triangulation by means of the Leontief input-output model. Artificial intelligence techniques are used to process and triangulate the data based on pathfinding techniques using a cost function. The triangulation results have created a hierarchy of countries (suppliers and customers). This type of methodology has not been applied to the field of foreign trade. The results show that Netherlands and Spain are key countries in intracommunity trade as they have a strong impact both with regard to their exports and their imports and are fundamental when analyzing the growth of specific sectors and how they are able to stimulate the economies of other countries.