Eugenia Serova

• Professor, Doctor of Economics
• Managing Director at National Research University Higher School of Economics

The modern Russian agrifood industry is a steadily developing sector of the national economy. The production of a number of goods has reached historically high levels. Russia has a strong position in the export of agricultural raw material commodities, while the country remains dependent on imports from other countries. This chapter examines critic...

The textbook offers a wide-ranging, comprehensive analysis of the contemporary Russian economy (as it functions in the early 2020s) concentrated on the economy, economic policy, and economic governance. Chapters cover recent Russian economic history, the economic geography of Russia, natural resources, population, major sectors and industries, livi...

Since the 1990s, the agricultureagriculture sector in Russia has undergone a deep systemic transformation in terms of land ownership, market-based production and investment, market pricing, external openness, and technical modernisationmodernisation. As a result of its systemic transformation, three types of agricultural farms emerged: (i) large pr...

This report examines critical areas of scientific research in Russia, which, according to the experts who participated in its preparation, will create “windows of opportunity” for increasing competitiveness in the situation of the transition of the world food systems from conventional agriculture to Agriculture 4.0. This period is key for ensuring...

As many other countries, Russia suffers from fast depopulation of rural areas and decline of rural economy. For years, the state policy for mitigate negative consequences of these processes was considering agriculture as the main pillar of rural development and most of governmental finding was oriented to its support. Recently, the new state strate...

One of the major targets of modern agri-food policy in Russia is a significant increase of agri-food exports — almost twice as much by 2024. In this projection, China is viewed as the most promising market. However, Russia’s entrance to the Chinese market faces a number of constraints. In addition to the standard difficulties associated with Russia...

At the modern stage of the agrarian reforms the establishing of the appropriate institutes seems to be the most important task in Russia. In order to describe the level of market insti-tutes development in agriculture the sampled survey in three regions of Russia were imple-mented. In survey two groups of transactions on the farm level were address...

The major countries of the former Soviet Union-specifically Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan-are becoming increasingly important in world agricultural markets. The two main developments are that this region has become a large grain exporter, especially of wheat and barley, and Russia a big agricultural importer, especially of meat. These trends shou...

The Case study elaborated in the paper deals with the mostly remote and also mostly famous tomato producing area in Russia: Astrakhan region, where smallholders absolutely dominate tomato production. The major markets for these tomatoes are traditionally located in the Centre of the European part of Russia and in the Northern territories. Local mar...

The results of a rural survey in two Russian regions demonstrate that agriculture is no longer the main source of income for rural families. They are diversifiers, earning non-agricultural income through both non-agricultural wage employment and non-farm self-employment. The rural population is risk-averse, preferring relative security of wage empl...

The results of a rural survey in two Russian regions demonstrate that agriculture is no longer the main source of income for rural families. Rural families are diversifiers, earning non-agricultural income through both non-agricultural wage employment and non-farm self-employment. The rural population is risk-averse, preferring the relative securit...

The paper studies the major trends in the agri-food trade in the NIS countries. It describes the trade flows, production cooperation and trade regimes within NIS countries; trade with the rest of the world and accession to the WTO. The key tested hypothesis of the paper is that intra-region trade dominate international trade in the NIS region, howe...

Russian policy makers argue that agriculture suffers from decapitalisation due to financial constraints faced by producers. This view is the basis for the national agricultural policy, which emphasises reimbursement of input costs and substitutes government and quasi-government organisations for the missing market institutions. The article evaluate...

Russian analysts discuss postcommunist economic transformation. The end of the Cold War saw an unprecedented number of countries changing economic policies at the same time. One result has been the emergence of a new field of economics, postcommunist transformation theory. Written by prominent Russian analysts, the essays in this book discuss the e...

This paper examines why transition from planned to market economies in the countries of the former Soviet bloc has changed their mix and volumes of food consumption. During transition, consumption of high value products, such as meat and dairy products, has plummeted, while consumption of staple foods such as bread and potatoes has remained steady,...

This paper examines the allocative efficiency of Russian use of mineral fertilizer to produce grain, assessed from the point of view of both domestic and trade prices. We use the results to examine whether fertilizer is being used at its optimal level, and whether the major changes in the volumes of fertilizer use and trade during transition have b...

Russian agriculture made only limited progress towards the market economy in the 1990s. Roughly 1,000 farm enterprises out of 26,900 were restructured.1 Most farm managers were more concerned with state orders and volume of production rather than with economic efficiency and profits, a management style which was characterized by analysts as post-Co...

Russia’s agro-food sector has changed significantly during the reform period. Firstly, the agricultural production were transformed and the downstream sector has been privatized. The industry has become more sensitive to market signals. Secondly, the state role in food distribution was diminished sharply and a new market infrastructure of the food...

This publication takes a close look at the agro-food economy in Russia. More specifically, it analyzes the transition of the agricultural and food sector from a centrally planned system to a market-oriented one. The papers presented cover a wide scope of topics; they set out to explain the initial conditions of transition, describe the measures und...

The papers of this book provide numerous examples of very interesting, up to date information on the status of the agro-food sector in Russia. Most of the authors also draw policy conclusions for the problems investigated in their paper. Any attempt to summarize them is a daunting task. Nevertheless, some readers might be interested in getting an o...

Agricultural credit has always been a topic of special attention for the state. However, the situation becomes even more complex in transitional economies. In countries with primarily agrarian economic structures, the problem of credit in the first stages of reform effectively does not come up: agricultural producers buy an insignificant quantity o...

Russia's 1998 financial crisis, although a result of home-made causes, was triggered by effects from international financial crises. In the agro-food economy, many households reacted to declining real income and rapidly rising prices by stockpiling food to meet short-term needs. In the medium term, further substitution of inferior for normal produc...

Russia's food economy is undergoing a fundamental transition. Rapid changes and adjustments are still taking place in the market and pricing systems, in the subsidies to output and input markets and the credit market, and in the process of privatization and other structural reforms. These transformations have far-reaching effects on domestic supply...

This discussion paper focuses on the food economy of Russia, to see what effect reforms are likely to have on Russia's ability to produce food and feed its people in the next decade (the forecasts extend only to 2005 because longer-term projections are difficult in this volatile economic environment). Scenarios for consumption and production of imp...

This special report covers major development and trends in Russia's agricultural sector during the transition. The reasons for the output decline in the 1990s can be traced back to the legacy of Soviet rule, and economic liberalisation did not prevent further deterioration and the resulting crisis in this sector. While overall output fell dramatica...

A 2020 Vision for Food, Agriculture, and the Environment OCTOBER 1996 Russia's food economy is undergoing a fundamental transi-tion. Rapid changes and adjustments are still taking place in the market and pricing systems, in the subsidies to output and input markets and the credit market, and in the process of privatization and other structural refo...