AGRICULTURE 4.0 AND IMPROVING COMPETITIVENESS OF THE DOMESTIC AGRO-FOOD SECTOR

The domestic agro-food sector has an important role in economic development and in overall GDP growth. The concept of Agriculture 4.0 that integrates the use of information-communication technologies presents a direction in which the domestic agriculture sector should focus. Additionally, besides conducting business within the frameworks of Agriculture 4.0, the standardization of processes in the agro-food sector can also contribute to achieving competitiveness on the globalized market. In this paper the importance and number of ISO standards are investigated. In addition, factors and indicators that characterize Agriculture 4.0 are analysed. Based on the collected and analysed data, a unified competitiveness factor (UCF) is calculated for the period from 2017 to 2020. The UCF provides and overview on the potential competitiveness of the domestic agro-food sector. The paper contributes to the existing body of literature as it managed to provide a strong basis for future research in this domain.