Agri-Food Industry as Priority in Smart Specialization Strategies in EU Member States (Sektor rolno-spozywczy jako priorytet w strategiach inteligentnych specjalizacji panstw Unii Europejskiej)

The article presents the analysis of the smart specialization strategy in the EU Member States (EU28) and their research and innovation specializations from the perspective of agri-food industry. 24 countries were identified that indicated agri-food industry in the smart specialization strategies (at the national or regional level). Then research and technological potential and specialization of these countries in agri-food industry were analyzed. On that basis three groups of countries (leaders of scale, leaders of specialization and countries building scale or specialization) and the main challenges associated with their smart specialization strategies in the context of agri-food industry were identified. The article also discusses the limitations of the adopted method of analysis and proposes directions for further research in this area.