Micro-Ingredient Markets and Their Impact on the Sustainability of Food Systems

Abstract

Commercial micro-ingredients of certain types are a gap in the Russian food industry. This article describes the Russian market for micro-ingredients, their impact on the sustainability of domestic food systems, and state support prospects. The study featured the development of micro-ingredient markets in the context of sustainable food systems. It relied on the theory of world-system analysis, as well as on the methods of comparative and statistical analyses. The materials were obtained from the Federal State Statistics Service, the Federal Customs Service, the Russian Export Center, and various rating and information agencies, including publically available data from the UN, the FAO, and the Union of Food Ingredients Producers. The authors assessed the impact of micro-ingredient markets on the sustainability of food systems and the effect of global and domestic market trends on the demand and supply of micro-ingredients. When strategizing state support for domestic producers of micro-ingredients, government should proceed from the availability of raw materials and competition. The article introduces a comparative analysis of the Russian market of flavoring agents, which includes both foreign and domestic producers, and the Russian market of citric acid, represented solely by Chinese companies. In the first case, the government should support the existing domestic producers and strengthen their positions in the Russian markets, with prospects for foreign market penetration. In the second case, the Russian food industry has to launch domestic products able to occupy the Russian market and defeat the powerful foreign competitors that are ready to use dumping. The analysis also revealed the main directions of state support for the domestic production of competitive micro-ingredients and their components. The results can be used to strategize state support measures for the domestic micro-ingredients in order to improve food security and the stability of the Russian food system to external shocks.