GLOBAL AGRI-FOOD MARKET: CONSUMER TRENDS AND TRADE PROBLEMS

Abstract

It is determined that the problem of food security, both for individual countries and for the world community as a whole, has been significantly exacerbated by interconnected global environmental, economic and social upheavals with rapid technological transformation of the industry combined with significantly growing global food demand and changing consumer preferences. These processes are taking place against the background of the global economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The consequences of the outlined factors on the international agri-food market are analyzed, namely the introduction of additional trade restrictions, rising food prices and disruptions in the global supply chain, etc. These and other negative trends within the global food market reduce the physical availability of food and reduce people’s quality of life. The object of research is the processes of development of the global market of agri-food products. The subject of research is the dominants and mechanisms of formation of the global market of agri-food products. The purpose of the work is a comprehensive assessment of the global agri-food market in terms of the transformation of consumer priorities, taking into account the turbulence of the international economic space. The task of the research is to determine the global dominants and trends in the development of the agri-food market, to assess the integration prospects of Ukraine into the world agri-food market. The following methods of scientific research were used to achieve the goal and solve the problems of the article: the method of system analysis, forecasting, generalization. The scientific novelty of the obtained results is to provide a comprehensive assessment of the current state of the international agri-food market in terms of key factors and determinants of its development with further construction of the optimal model of economic cooperation between Ukraine and its international trading partners which is based on the obtained results. The study also further developed a systematic assessment of the agri-food market of Ukraine, which is dynamically integrated into the global market and is characterized, on the one hand, by strengthening the leading position of Ukrainian producers in a number of product positions and geographical structure of trade relations in the world market, and on the other hand, by the disparity between  exports of raw materials and finished products.