*3.3. Competitive Advantages*

A revealed discrepancy between the advantages attests to the relevance of measuring the competitiveness through several alternative parameters. At stage 3, applying the Lafay index to the established grid of RCA and RTA values, we see that the countries of Central Asia have competitive advantages in labor-intensive horticulture (fresh fruits and nuts) rather than technology-intensive food processing or finance-intensive livestock sector. Even for the production of preserved fruit and fruit and vegetable juices, LI indicators do not fully match previously identified comparative and trade advantages (Table 5).


**Table 5.** *LIav* values for selected agricultural products in Central Asia in 2000–2018.

Note: Green cells—product groups for which all three RCA, RTA, and LI match; yellow cells—product groups with competitive advantage. Source: Authors' calculation based on [26].
