ABSTRACT
Agriculture was an integral part of the socialist centrally-planned economy in the Communist regimes in Central and East European Countries (CEECs) and former republics of the Soviet Union (FSU). Agriculture in the CEECs and FSU was strongly subsidized during the socialist period. In many CEEC and FSU countries agricultural support exceeded the EU protection level and in Russia and Estonia it also exceeded the protection level of the most protectionist countries such as Japan. Transition process in agriculture involved four different tasks: privatization, farm restructuring, price liberalization, and institution building. Land privatization was therefore a significant step towards a market economy. Farm restructuring followed after the privatization process. New private owners of farm assets and land were allowed to break away from cooperative farms and to start individual farming. Transition also involved institutional changes, in addition to privatization and liberalization.
