Russian Agricultural and Food Sector in Transition

This paper examines current situation in Russian agricultural and food sector and evaluates forthcoming development. Russia's agricultural production diminished by half at the beginning of the 1990s, and since that the production has hardly grown. In fact, Russia is one of the biggest food importers in the world. Particularly in livestock sector the situation is difficult. Number of livestock has not grown according to expectations and production does not satisfy domestic demand. Crop husbandry, by contrast, has export potential, but fluctuations in export volumes have been great. Furthermore, quality of grain has not always met standards. Russia's food industry has grown rapidly in the past few years, even though Russia has not reached self-sufficiency. Foreign investments have improved quality level of Russia's food industry. However, food imports will continue in the next ten years in bulk food products. For example current meat import volumes will remain more or less unchanged. Moreover, import demand of more specialised production inputs will grow.