THE DIAGNOSTICS OF ECONOMIC SECURITY OF AGRO-FOOD SECTOR OF THE REGION FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF ITS EXPORT POTENTIAL

The main direction of the development of the Russian agro-food sector is the development of its export potential and the expansion into new sales markets. For the non-resource regions of the country, the export-oriented activity of the agriculture and food industry becomes a significant driver of regional development, build-up of regional returns, and the improvement of the quality of life. Based on the theory of economic security, the paper studies the risk-contributing factors and threats in the agro-food sphere of the Republic of Mordovia. The study showed that despite the task of rapid build-up of food export set by the republic government, the effect of some macroeconomic (infrastructure underdevelopment, insufficient level of development of innovations) and regional (labor force deficiency, fixed assets depreciation) factors remains, and they can cause loss and hinder further development of the sphere under analysis. Based on the data of customs statistics, the author identified the major regional trends in the sphere of international food products trade, such as the growth of export of meat and meat products, flour-milling products. The indicative system of economic security of the international business sector of the region offered by the author allows both to evaluate the threats in the sphere of development of the export-oriented activity of agro-food enterprises and identify the risk-contributing factors in this area, as well as to assess the loss from these threats effect. The author concludes that if retaining state support of the export-oriented activity in the agro-food sector, it is necessary to solve the attendant problems related to the modernization of this sphere, building of human capacity, availability of support tools, etc.

economic security, agro-food sector, food export, export potential, threat to economic security