Russia’s Agro-Food Sector: Towards Truly Functioning Markets

533 Pages·2000·19.92 MB·English

by  Peter Wehrheim

RUSSIA'S AGRO-FOOD SECTOR
Russia's Agro-Food Sector
Towards Truly Functioning Markets
Edited by
Peter Wehrheim
Center for Development Research,
University ofB onn, Germany
Klaus Frohberg
Institute ofA gricultural Development in
Central and Eastern Europe,
University ofH aile, Germany
Eugenia Serova
Institute for the Economy in Transition,
Moscow, Russia
and
Joachim von Braun
Center for Development Research,
University ofB onn, Germany
KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS
BOSTON I DORDRECHT I LONDON
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Contents
Preface
IX
1 INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW 1
Peter Wehrheim, Eugenia V. Serova, Klaus Frohberg, and
Joachim von Braun
2 WHERE DOES RUSSIA STAND?
2.1 A Comparison of Agrarian Transition in Russia, 9
China, and Eastern Europe
Karen Macours and Johan F .M. Swinnen
Comments 36
Stephan von Cramon-Taubadel
2.2 Russia's Position within the CIS: A Cross-country 39
Comparison
Klaus Frohberg and Peter Voigt
2.3 Russia's Agro-food Sector: State of the Art 81
Eugenia V. Serova
Comments 107
Franz Heidhues
3 POLICY AND MACROECONOMICS
3.1 Sectoral Agricultural Policies and Estimates of 111
PSEs for Russia in the Transition Period
Andrzej Kwiecinski and Natasha Pescatore
3.2 Inflation and Exchange Rate Policies 129
Witold R. Poganietz
3.3 The Role of the Agro-food Sector in the 155
Macroeconomy: General Equilibrium Effects
Peter Wehrheim
Comments 180
David Sedik
4 SPATIAL MARKET INTEGRATION
4.1 Economic Consequences of Russia's InternaJ 185
Border
Daniel Berkowitz and David Dejong
4.2 Regional (Dis-)Integration of Russia's Agro-food 203
Markets
ArnimKuhn
4.3 The Effects of Disintegration: Regional Grain 221
Production and Marketing in Russia 1992-1995
Michael Kopsidis
Comments 239
Stephan von Cramon-Taubadel
5 TRADE
5.1 Russia's Agro-food Trade and Trade Agreements 243
Uwe Eiteljorge and Monika Hartmann
5.2 Russia's Bilateral Agricultural Trade: First 271
Results of a Partial Equilibrium Analysis
Achim Fock, Peter Weingarten, Olaf Wahl, and Mikhail
Prokopiev
Comments 298
Wilhelm Henrichsmeyer
6 SUBSISTENCE PRODUCTION AND
CONSUMPTION OF FOOD
6.1 Poverty, Subsistence Production, and 301
Consumption of Food in Russia: Policy
Implications
Joachim von Braun, Matin Qaim, and Harm tho Seeth
6.2 The Role of Household Plots in Rural Areas 323
Alexander Surinov and Sergei Shashnov
Comments 333
Csaba Csaki
VI
7 EVOLVING FOOD MARKETING CHAIN
7.1 Effectiveness of Competition in Russian Food 337
Markets
Olga Yastrebova
7.2 Vertical Integration in the Russian Agro-food 359
Sector
Jiirgen Wandel
7.3 New Players in Russia's Food Marketing Chain 383
Olga Melyukhina and Irina Khramova
Comments 405
Dieter Kirschke
8 INSTITUTIONAL ISSUES IN RURAL AREAS
8.1 Credit Markets in Rural Russia 409
Renata Yanbykh
8.2 Building Market Information Systems for the 429
Agro-food Sector
Hermann Lotze and Steffen Noleppa
Comments 444
Konstantin Lapshin
9 INSTITUTIONAL ISSUES AT THE FARM-
LEVEL
9.1 Decollectivization and Restructuring of Farms 447
Peter Tillack and Eberhard Schulze
9.2 Organization of Russia's Large Scale Farms 471
Jiirgen Zeddies
9.3 Agricultural Enterprise Restructuring in Russia, 495
1991-95: an Efficiency Analysis
David 1. Sedik, Michael A. Trueblood, and Carlos Amade
Comments 513
Zvi Lerman
vii
10 SYNTHESIS
10.1 Policy Conclusions: An Agenda 517
Klaus Frohberg and Eugenia V. Serova
10.2 Research Implications: Beyond Transition 523
Peter Wehrheim and Joachim von Braun
Contributing authors 535
Subject index 539
viii
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. ix -x
Preface
This publication builds on revised and updated papers presented during a
conference on the transition process of Russia's agro-food sector that took
place in July 1998 at the Center for Development Research (ZEF,
University of Bonn). The conference grew out of a research project on
Russia's agro-food sector in transition financed by the Volkswagen
Foundation, Germany, and was jointly implemented by researchers from the
Center of Development Research and the Institute for the Economy in
Transition (lET, Moscow). The research project itself ran from 1994 to
1998 and significant shares of it were implemented while some of the
German researchers were based at the Institute for Food Economics and
Consumption Studies (University of Kiel). The Institute of Agricultural
Development in Central and Eastern Europe (IAMO, Balle) joined the
two mentioned before in organizing and conceptualizing the conference.
Development of agro-food markets in Russia is one important field of
IAMO's research. In addition, a number of researchers from other institutes
and international organizations contributed the results of their original
research to the publication.
This publication covers a wide range of topics revolving around the
central theme of the book. The contributions were presented at the
conference. Authors revised their papers taking into account the comments
received during the seminar. The revised version was peer reviewed in each
case by at least two persons.
Some articles provide an introduction into and overview of the various
issues rather than offering a full-fledged and detailed analysis of the
problem under discussion. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that some
of the topics covered in individual articles are very broad. They could be
chosen as a theme for a whole conference in itself. On the other hand, the
collection of articles presented in this publication sets out to survey the
current state of the art leaving ample space for further research.
ix
Preface
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.
Peter Wehrheim Bonn
Eugenia V. Serova Moscow
Klaus Frohberg Halle/Saale
Joachim von Braun Bonn
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.
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 undertaken, survey the
current situation, and offer perspectives on how best to continue with the
reforms. Hence, the book does not only provide insights into Russia's food
economy, it also gives very valuable information about the process of
transition in this country.
The reader might ask, why an entire publication is devoted to Russia's
agriculture and food sector in particular. There are many reasons why this
country was chosen. Within the Russian context, the food economy is of
special importance, due to the high share it represents with regard to the
total GDP and employment, but also because of the relatively large amount
of income Russians have to spend on food. 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 as much as its reintegration into
the world economy is at stake. Two points deserve mention in this respect.
The market which suddenly became accessible with the opening of borders