Formation of Competition in Russian Regional Food Markets.

The extent of development of competition in the regional food market as well as the influence of monopolism on economic condition of agro-industrial complex’s branches and on welfare of consumers have been analysed in this work. There were considered possibilities of utilising modern microeconomic models of assessment of quantitative parameters of development of competition. Establishing of competition and overcoming of high level of monopolism in food markets is an important aspect that determines food market equilibrium. Level of concentration of production is different for various food sectors of food market that requires different approaches to regulating of these markets. To analyse the extent of development of competitive environment in the sphere of foodstuff production of the region HHI and the total share of the four largest producers of foodstuffs were calculated. The computation has shown that, for example, in the Saratov region the markets of milk products and sunflower oil can be considered as highly concentrated, the market of butter is poorly concentrated. Despite the big influence of concentration of production on creation of competitive environment, anti-monopolistic control should not be limited to de-enlargement of producers. Such an approach, to our mind, leads to establishing of uneffective productions. Price formation mechanisms should correspond to competitiveness o