Russia's Agro-Food Sector

While this book presents the results of comprehensive and cooperative international reseirch, this effort would not have been successful without the assistance of various institutions and personalities. Financial support for the conference was received from the Volkswagen Foundation, Germany, and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) which is gratefully acknowledged. The Deutsche Ralffeisenverband kindly contributed to hosting the international group of researchers in Bonn. For their valuable comments we also thank: Uwe Eiteljorge, Johannes Jutting, Amim Kuhn, Witold-Roger Poganietz, Matin Qaim, Alexandra Schleier, Ludwig Striewe, Jllrgen Wandel, Peter Weingarten, Manfred Wiebelt and Susanna Wolf. The editors also acknowledge the help provided by James Creed, Karin Clark, and Ulla Knodt in checking language and style of the articles, most of them written by non-native speakers. Martin Grub, Tina Klebsch, and Andrea Stang have been helpful in providing technical assistance needed to prepare the manuscript. Bonn Peter Wehrheim Eugenia V. Serova Moscow Halle/Saale Klaus Frohberg Bonn Joachim von Braun January 2000 x Russia's Agro-food Sector: Towards Truly Functioning Markets Wehrheim, P., E. V. Serova, K. Frohberg, and J. von Braun (eds.) Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 1 - 8 SECTION 1 Introduction and Overview Peter Wehrheim, Eugenia V. Serova, Klaus Frohberg, and Joachim von Braun 1. INTRODUCTION This publication takes a close look at the agro-food economy in Russia.

Autorentext

Joachim von Braun is Director of ZEF.

Klappentext

This book analyzes the transition of Russia's agro-food sector from a centrally planned system to a market-oriented one. The chapters set out to explain the initial conditions of transition, describe the measures undertaken, survey the current situation, and offer perspectives on how best to continue with the reform. Hence, the book not only provides insights into Russia's food economy, it also gives very valuable information about the process of transition and the question: What next? br/ Within the Russian context, the food economy is of special importance, due to the relatively high share it represents in the economy and its importance for employment. Furthermore, the privatization and the restructuring of the country's agro-food sector is one of the most controversial issues in the ongoing domestic political debate about the reform process. Russia is also important in that its reintegration into the world economy is at stake. br/ emRussia's Agro-Food Sector: Towards Truly Functioning Markets/em should increase the understanding of the issues causing the cumbersome implementation of reform measures and, in so doing, might provide scholars and policymakers with advice on how to improve the transition process. In fact, one of the most important lessons from the book is that markets will continue to malfunction as long as institutions are not functioning properly.

Zusammenfassung
`The book is well edited. Although most of the authors are not native English speakers, the papers are well written. ... The book is an informative, thourough and well-prepared review of the status of Russia's agro-food economy in the late 1990s. Its content and style make it accessible to anyone interested in transition agriculture.'
European Review of Agricultural Economics, 27:4 (2000)
**Everyone working in this area should study this more closely. Moreover, the book can be used as an excellent reference book for teaching a course on transition economics''Quarterly Journal of International Agriculture, 40:4 (2001)**

Inhalt
1 Introduction and Overview.- 1 Introduction and Overview.- 2 Where Does Russia Stand?.- 2.1 A Comparison of Agrarian Transition in Russia, China, and Eastern Europe.- 2.2 Russia's Position within the CIS: A Cross-country Comparison.- 2.3 Russia's Agro-food Sector: State of the Art.- 3 Policy and Macroeconomics.- 3.1 Sectoral Agricultural Policies and Estimates of PSEs for Russia in the Transition Period.- 3.2 Inflation and Exchange Rate Policies.- 3.3 The Role of the Agro-food Sector in the Macroeconomy: General Equilibrium Effects.- 4 Spatial Market Integration.- 4.1 Economic Consequences of Russia's Internal Border.- 4.2 Regional (Dis-)Integration of Russia's Agro-food Markets.- 4.3 The Effects of Disintegration: Regional Grain Production and Marketing in Russia 1992-1995.- 5 Trade.- 5.1 Russia's Agro-food Trade and Trade Agreements.- 5.2 Russia's Bilateral Agricultural Trade: First Results of a Partial Equilibrium Analysis.- 6 Subsistence Production and Consumption of Food.- 6.1 Poverty, Subsistence Production, and Consumption of Food in Russia: Policy Implications.- 6.2 The Role of Household Plots in Rural Areas.- 7 Evolving Food Marketing Chain.- 7.1 Effectiveness of Competition in Russian Food Markets.- 7.2 Vertical Integration in the Russian Agro-food Sector.- 7.3 New Players in Russia's Food Marketing Chain.- 8 Institutional Issues in Rural Areas.- 8.1 Credit Markets in Rural Russia.- 8.2 Building Market Information Systems for the Agro-food Sector.- 9 Institutional Issues at the Farm-Level.- 9.1 Decollectivization and Restructuring of Farms.- 9.2 Organization of Russia's Large Scale Farms.- 9.3 Agricultural Enterprise Restructuring in Russia, 1991-95: an Efficiency Analysis.- 10 Synthesis.- 10.1 Policy Conclusions: An Agenda.- 10.2 ResearchImplications: Beyond Transition.- Contributing authors.