Factors Influencing Food Markets in Developing Countries: An Approach to Assess Sustainability of the Food Supply in Russia

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Providing sustainability of the food supply is becoming increasingly challenging in today’s rapidly changing global economic environment. Food security remains a serious problem, especially in developing countries where the challenge of the sustainable food supply is exacerbated by the rapid rise in the population, limited access to food intake, vulnerability, price volatilities, protection measures imposed by the government, and other distorting influences. Russia is classified as a middle-income country that is nationally self-sufficient in its food supply. However, amid the economic recession and restrictions on foreign trade in food, many households in Russia are becoming increasingly vulnerable to food insecurity. In the case of Russia, this paper aims to assess the sustainability of the food supply, and identify the factors that affect food security. In order to establish the impact of socio-economic variables on food security at the macroeconomic level, a regression model was estimated. The study has identified the factors that influence food security in terms of agricultural production, food self-sufficiency, and foreign trade. The relationships between the regressands and corresponding regressors have been discovered, in view of alternations between positive and negative influences on the dependent variables. Additionally, a significance of the relationships has been measured. The results of the regression analysis suggest that the sustainability of the food supply in Russia is threatened by inflation and a degrading purchasing power of the population from people shifting towards cheaper products of lower quality, while exporters seek higher profits outside the country and thus create food shortages in the domestic market.