Changes in Agri-Food Export Competitiveness Based on the Sophistication Analysis: The Case of Xinjiang, China

The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is a major agri-food export contributor within China. Growing quality requirements for agri-food export, increasing green trade barriers, and a desire to emphasize sustainable trade at regional levels have prompted Xinjiang to pay increased attention to agri-food export competitiveness. The paper uses the export sophistication index to investigate the overall and classificatory export competitiveness of Xinjiang’s Agricultural Products (APs). The results are compared to the national average within China by calculating the relative export sophistication. The research finds that (1) Xinjiang’s APs exports are predominant in medium and medium-low-sophistication products. Along with the expanding scale, its structure has been optimized overall. (2) Horticultural products keep a leading position, not having strong competitiveness in Xinjiang but also far exceeding the national average. However, the bulk APs, livestock products, aquatic products, beverages and tobacco, and other APs have no significant export competitiveness compared to the national average. (3) The export structure of Xinjiang’s APs is highly concentrated in horticultural products, showing an adverse trend in export competitiveness distribution—”the strong getting stronger and the weak getting weaker,” and a slower upgrading than the national average since the outbreak of COVID-19, which requires the attention of policymakers.