IMPROVING COMPETITIVENESS IN INTERNATIONAL MARKETS THROUGH THE APPLICATION OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TECHNOLOGIES IN FRUIT AND VEGETABLE EXPORTS

Abstract

The intensification of competition on international horticultural markets has
turned the modernization of fruit and vegetable export chains into a strategic priority for agroexporting economies. This study examines how artificial intelligence (AI) technologies can be
deployed across the export value chain to strengthen the international competitiveness of fruit and
vegetable producers and exporters. Drawing on the case of Uzbekistan — one of the world’s
leading exporters of dried apricots, plums, raisins and fresh stone fruit — the paper combines
secondary foreign-trade statistics with primary survey data collected from 142 fruit and vegetable
exporting enterprises. A conceptual framework is developed that links five families of AI
technologies (computer vision, machine-learning forecasting, IoT-enabled cold-chain analytics,
natural-language market intelligence, and AI-based traceability and buyer-matching) to five stages
of the export value chain and to four competitiveness outcomes. Revealed comparative advantage
analysis confirms a strong but quality-constrained export position. Multiple regression analysis
demonstrates that the firm-level AI Adoption Index is the strongest predictor of the Export
Competitiveness Index (β = 0.474; p < 0.001) and that the full model explains 62.4% of its
variance. Enterprises in the highest AI-adoption quartile achieved, on average, a 23% higher unit
export price, a 41% lower consignment rejection rate and almost twice the market diversification
of low-adoption firms. The paper concludes with a staged policy and managerial roadmap for AIdriven competitiveness upgrading.