1.3.            REGIONAL SPECIALISATION AND MECHANISMS FOR THE BALANCED DEVELOPMENT OF FOOD MARKETS

Thus, the analysis indicates unsuccessful results of the reorganisation of agriculture in 1990s. Internal territorial differences in the level of social and economical development, livelihoods of the population, entrepreneurship conditions, specific regional interests are accompanied by the deepening of interregional disparities. The share of Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhie, Lugansk oblasts and Kiev in the total national industrial output is 56,9 %. Kiev, Kharkov and Dnepropetrovsk oblasts concentrate 78 % of the founding capital of all Ukrainian commercial banks, expenditures of the local budgets per capita in Donetsk oblast exceed expenditures in Zakarpatskaya oblast by 1,9 times.

Constraints in the development and implementation of the effective and socially significant regional policy in Ukraine are:

1.       Economic crisis which does not allow to accumulate enough funds to support regional problems.

2.       Financial and monetary methods of macro-economic stabilisation.

3.       Insufficiency of the scientific base and regional statistics, absence of the system of regional monitoring of economic development. 

4.       Absence of clear legal regulation of financial and taxation relations in hierarchy of regional officials and the centre.

5.       Absence of regional programmes of the development.

6.       Deficiency of skilled staff to manage regional development.

7.       Insufficient study of market mechanisms operating in the given region and, as a consequence, absence of the economically conditioned programme for the implementation of the regional development programme.

Summarising review of the food market in Ukraine, we should mention that a part of agricultural lands (5 million ha) is not used as a result of Chernobyl disaster. This figure is given in connection with the fact that Kiev oblast outruns other oblasts on many social, production figures and investments but a part of lands is contaminated with radionuclides and is not used. While there are no lands in Donetsk and Kharkov oblasts that are not used because of the contamination with radionuclides.

Development of regional markets in 1990s has been accompanied by the increase of their autonomy, which contradicts the idea of the balanced development of national food market. The last could be achieved not by local consumption of all food products, which have been produced locally, but by satisfying people’s demand by wide range & high quality food produce, produced in rayons & zones with the best natural, social & economical conditions at low costs.

For example in 1996 in Crimea, Donetsk, Zaporozhie, Ligansk & Kherson oblasts agricultural enterprises harvested 307 th t of sugar beet (industrial), but in 1990 in the regions mentioned sugar beet was not grown, because yields & sugar content were 1,5-2,0 times lower in step oblasts compared to forest-steppe ones. Sunflower is also grown outside zones of its optimum production. It’s caused by economical crisis & myopic policy of local authorities prohibiting produce export from region.

Because of decrease of food consumed, drop of peoples’ incomes & increase of prices for basic food products, people have to come back to subsistence production – supplying themselves with food products & this makes half of food products consumed by families and for urban population part of products purchased is higher than average one among the country & for rural population – lower.

Main tasks of geomarketing approach applied to the research of food market are:

1. substantiation of demand for food products on territorial basis
2. analysis of demand on regional & branch-regional basis (production, zoning, reserves, volumes, structure & dynamics of food product demand on regional markets)
3. learning geography of prices & its background factors
4. analysis of interregional differentiation of consumption level for food products
5. identification of dependence between volume & dynamics food produce turnover; grounding forecast of development of regional food markets.
6. evaluation of competitive positions of regional food complexes on internal & external markets

Future perspectives of agro industrial complex are:

1. role in identification of market demand (than, number & settling of population its incomes), difference in weather conditions in different rayons in the country & total incomes while making decision on territorial production development
2. expansion of infrastructure on area, which is very important for fast transportation of raw materials, semi-finished products & produce in different directions
3. environment protection while agro industrial production operation, setting strict ecological limitations at all stages of technological cycle
4. tending to achieve maximum saving of time & funds by establishing closer links between production & processing of agricultural production, expanding number of small & medium scale enterprises of food industry within existing framework
5. abolishment of administrative limitations for food produce shipment between regions, step by step opening of national market as soon as positions of local producers are becoming stronger.

Balanced development of regional food markets, as basis for satisfaction of social needs of people living in regions, requires development of market infrastructure:

• network of wholesale food markets in big cities
• regional agro industrial exchange (both  universal & narrow specialised & develop last ones in rayons with large scale production of such type of produce)
• banks & credit services
• marketing & advisory services
• development of transport (refrigerators), communications, roads
• development of warehouses & spaces for storing perishable goods

It’ll serve improvement of mobility on territorial basis of food resources, increasing part of produce marketed through direct links & according to the prises based on demand & supply levels.