Transition and foreign trade: the case of the Ukrainian agri-food sector

The purpose of this paper is to assess the progress of the transformation process and to analyse which policy measures are necessary for further economic integration into world markets. In this study we concentrate on the Ukrainian agri-food sector. The development of foreign trade may serve as indicator of success of market reforms. Thus we analyse the changes in the trade structure of agri-food sector and compute indicators of inter- (RTA Index) and intra-industrial (Grubel-Lloyd Index, Brülhart A-Index, characterising the marginal intra-industry trade) trade for the period 1996-2005. We discuss also which policy measures are necessary for further economic integration of Ukraine into world markets.agri-food sector, intra-industry trade, marginal intra-industry trade, Ukraine, International Relations/Trade,

Overview of international organic market development and potential export markets for organic products of Ukraine

From the Summar of the Report Production At worldwide level in year 2003 66% of the world’s organic land (total 24 mio ha) are concentrated in two continents: Australia and Latin America. In these regions extensive grazing land is widespread beside the whole game of plant production, from cereals to coffee, tea and other tropical products. In Northern America the organic farmland achieves 1,5 mio ha. Europe has 23 % of the worldwide organic land (5,5 mio ha), these 5,5 mio ha correspond to almost 2% of agricultural land managed organically. Liechtenstein is with 26 % of agricultural area managed organically the leader followed by Aus-tria with 11% and Switzerland with 10%. In most countries the organically managed surface is still increasing. In the enlarged EU the area raised 4% from year 2002 to 2003, in the new countries of the EU (Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Hungary) the growing rates of organic farm land is over 10%. Small declines have been observed in Denmark, The Netherlands, Italy and United Kingdom. In the European Union and Switzerland the agrarian policy supports organic sec-tor with different measurers like direct payments for organically managed area, contribution for conversion, payments for environmental services and animal wel-fare, training and capacity building, research programs etc. Ukraine was the granary of the former Soviet Union. Large surfaces of fertile black soils are favourable for organic farming. In Ukraine 230’000 ha are certified organic or in conversion in year 2003. This represents 0.58% of land area under organic management. 69 production units with an average size about 3’500 ha are certified. Wheat, barley, sunflower and corn are the most important crops on these farms. The organic production increased in the last years with the expecta-tion to get access to export markets. In Ukraine certified organic fruit and vegetable producers are missing. There is also nearly no animal husbandry farm certified. The potential for conversion of plant production units is high, because many farmers use few external inputs. For smaller farms, without access to export markets, the certification costs of international certifiers are unattainable. Until now the agrarian policy doesn’t support especially organic farming. The ministry of agriculture and the commission of the parliament for agriculture are in contact with the new organic farming association Biolan Ukraine and other stake-holders for the elaboration of a law for organic production. There is advisory and training capacity for organic farming but this is still insufficient for the whole country. Market overview Europe and Northern America are responsible for 97% of organic sales to con-sumers. There is a global harmonisation of market trends and buying behaviours. The organic consumer lives in urban centres, has a higher education which is transformed in higher income, is young and has children or is older with a healthy lifestyle. Important issues for this consumer are food and health (free of dangersafety, label, certification) and food and emotions (animal welfare, regional product). Important triggers for buying organic are children, allergies and healthy life-style. The barriers for not buying organic are the price, the availability and in general less importance given to nutrition. Between the countries there are significant differences in the importance of the sales channels from direct marketing included weekly markets and box schemes, specialised organic food shops to general food shops (retailer shops, supermarkets, and discounter). General food shops are the most important sales channels over all and especially in countries with mature food markets like Austria, Den-mark, France, Switzerland and United Kingdom. Germany with a well developed organic food market is an exception with only 35 % of sales in general food shops. The organic market is in a growing phase in Northern America (15%-30%), Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Portugal and Finland. The rest of the Euro-pean countries, the Ukrainian neighbours like Russia and the Baltic States, Asian countries like Korea and Chine and Middle East countries like Saudi Arabia are in the phase of emerging market. The most important markets (in value and in decreasing order) are: USA, Ger-many, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Canada and Switzerland. In Switzerland the average consumer spends 104 Euro on organic products per annum, this is the highest amount. The price premiums for organic food paid to the farmers in the EU countries in year 2000 vary tremendous between the countries and the products. For cereals the average was 102% and the highest average price premium for plant product was reported for potatoes with 257%. The price premiums for animal products paid in EU are in average lower (milk 22%, beef 34% pork 68%) than for plant products with exception of poultry with 182% and eggs with 167%. In Europe there are supply and demand imbalances: oversupply in milk and beef and supply gaps in cereals. European organic fruit, vegetables and cereals can normally be sold as organic within Europe. Tropical, off season and exotic (eth-nic) products are imported to Europe and Northern America. In Europe the self sufficiency degree shows big variations from country to country and product to product. In cereals for example in year 2001 Belgium has 2% self sufficiency and Spain 316%, France an exporter of conventional cereals reports self sufficiency degree for organic of 35%. Even more important then the self suf-ficiency degrees are supply gaps (national production and imports are not suffi-cient). In the OMIaRD market research there were expected the following supply deficit for year 2003/04: For wheat and barley in Germany and Slovenia, for rye in Slovenia and Finland, for oilseed in Germany, Finland and Sweden, for legumi-nous fodder crops in Austria, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands and United King-dom. Access to the EU and Swiss market is possible when the products are certified according to EU-standard (EU-regulations 2092/91 and 1804/99) or Swiss or-ganic ordinance. Depending on the market, other, mainly private, standards need to be fulfilled In Ukraine the national market for organic products is in the initial phase with some imported products like baby food, tea or coffee. The potential organic con-sumers are urban, younger professional women and young families with small children, from the new middle to upper class. At the moment they buy so called environmental clean products, with 20% to 100% price premium. These products are not certified; they are supposed to come from regions without relevant human made pollution and free of radioactivity. The Ukrainian consumers are aware of important organic issues like health and dangers residues. Up to now “organic” is not protected by law. Experts estimate that 5% to 10% of the Ukrainian products certified organic (mainly cereals and oilseeds) are sold as organic and exported to Western Europe

International Experience of Administration in the Insurance Area and Possibility of Its Application on Ukraine

The objective of the article is: 1) to study the experience of foreign countries on the organization of insurance activities; 2) to determine the feasibility of introducing international practices into the national insurance system. For this purpose, the authors used the following methods of scientific cognition: dialectical, comparative analysis and bibliographic.The authors of the paper have analyzed the experience of foreign countries on the organization of insurance activities; have determined the feasibility of implementing legal norms and successful international practices and methods into national insurance system. The historical stages of the development of insurance management, as well as the current forms and methods of its implementation have been studied. It has been emphasized that the sphere of insurance activity is quite an important component in the system of public administration and country’s economy in general. That is the reason that we admit it extremely necessary to provide the national insurance area with the necessary conditions for its further development, in particular, it is offered to accomplish this through more flexible and high-quality legal regulation. Besides, the state policy on administration in the field of insurance should be aimed at: the formation of an insurance market with a highly developed infrastructure and a wide range of insurance services; adaptation of the Ukrainian insurance market to the world requirements of financial regulation and supervision; cooperation with European and international organizations; harmonization of national legislation in the field of insurance with international standards, etc

Tourism in Moscow after the ‘Perestroika’ transformations

Moscow seems indeed to be a centre of world tourism. On the one hand, its tourism attractiveness for Russians and foreigners, as well as the wide opportunities it offers to its own inhabitants, stimulates trips for tourism and recreational purposes. On the other hand, it is determined by a number of historical, geographical, demographic, geopolitical, economic and socio-cultural factors

An Evaluation of The Impact of Globalization on the U.S. Dairy Industry: Threats, Opportunities and Implications

Agribusiness, International Development, International Relations/Trade,

‘Russophone Israeli Cinema: “Accented”, Post-Soviet, Transnational, Postnational?’

Source at http://www.kinokultura.com/.This issue focuses on Russophone cinema in Israel, i.e., films made by and about ex-Soviet Israelis in Israel and elsewhere. Our work on this publication began well before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Even if the current war has little bearing on the articles and reviews that are collected here, it is not at all surprising that this particularly horrifying context leads, inter alia, to reflections on cinema production within a Russian context. These reflections also need to be extended to how we study post-communist cinema more generally

Institutional Investors, Corporate Ownership, and Corporate Governance: Global Perspectives

Institutional investors, Corporate ownership, Corporate governance

clicktatorship and democrazy: Social media and political campaigning

This chapter aims to direct attention to the political dimension of the social media age. Although current events like the Cambridge Analytica data breach managed to raise awareness for the issue, the systematically organized and orchestrated mechanisms at play still remain oblivious to most. Next to dangerous monopoly-tendencies among the powerful players on the market, reliance on automated algorithms in dealing with content seems to enable large-scale manipulation that is applied for economical and political purposes alike. The successful replacement of traditional parties by movements based on personality cults around marketable young faces like Emmanuel Macron or Austria’s Sebastian Kurz is strongly linked to products and services offered by an industry that simply provides likes and followers for cash. Inspired by Trump’s monopolization of the Twitter-channel, these new political acteurs use the potential of social media for effective message control, allowing them to avoid confrontations with professional journalists. In addition, an extremely active minority of organized agitators relies on the viral potential of the web to strongly influence and dictate public discourse – suggesting a shift from the Spiral of Silence to the dangerous illusion of a Nexus of Noise

The Political Economy of Corporate Governance Change in Bulgaria: Washington Consensus, Primitive Accumulation of Capital, and Catching-Up in the 1990

This study examines three key determinants of corporate governance change in Bulgaria: the Washington Consensus policy, primitive accumulation of capital forces, and 'catching-up' factors. The study reveals that in the early transition (1989-96) primitive capital accumulation prevailed over the Washington Consensus impact on corporate governance transformation while since 1997 Washington Consensus has been in the process of becoming the decisive factor for institutional change. The emerging corporate governance system has been neither Anglo-American (market based) nor bank-based, but rather a 'crony' relationship-based one. The striking features of this system are as follows: (i) a dual enterprise sector, (ii) ownership heterogeneity; (iii) fragile capital markets; (iv) pervasive banks lending behavior; (v) globalization factors discretion. The challenge to policy-makers in Bulgaria is how to design institutions for 'catching-up' that would curb both managerial and globalization factors discretion.

Intra-Industry Trade in Agricultural Products Between the United States, NAFTA and European Union Trading Partners

This study provides an overview of trends and identifies country-specific determinants of intra-industry trade (IIT) between the United States (U.S.), the European Union (EU) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) trading partners. We analyze the food and live animal industry at the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) revision 4 at the 4-digit level to calculate IIT and cover the period between 2007 and 2014. To determine the country-specific determinants of IIT, we used a Generalized Least Squares (GLS) random effect model. Results indicate that the size of an economy, the relative difference in level of economic development, the real exchange rate and research and development (R&D) are positively associated with IIT, while, trade imbalance, geographical distance and available arable land are negatively correlated with the IIT share. The results suggest that countries with relatively large economies, with high levels of per capita income, that are geographically near to one another and with a low trade imbalance are associated with having comparatively high levels of IIT in the food and live animal industry. Results also show an increasing IIT trend for most U.S. trading partners in the food and live animal industry during the period of analysis. IIT and value-added agriculture both involve trade and production of differentiated products, so their increased importance is closely linked. Value-added products involve high profit margins relative to raw commodities and increased importance of value-added agriculture activities goes hand-in-hand with the growing role of IIT in total international trade in agriculture and food products and it may open the door for additional international trade