ABSTRACT
Westerners’ strongest image concerning the food problems of the republics of the former Soviet Union is probably that of a Russian babushka looking forlornly through a food shop window at empty shelves. This chapter argues that the main food economy problems in the USSR’s successor states do not primarily involve agricultural production. More general wage, price and monetary policies affecting demand and distribution have largely caused food sector problems. The main cause of the food economy’s worsening problems during the Gorbachev years was macroeconomic imbalance, caused by a combination of wage, price, budget and monetaiy policies. Successful reform in the long run will increase efficiency and productivity in all sectors of the food economy and reduce the large waste of output. Effective economic reform in the republics will require the acceptance of short-run social hardship in pursuit of long-run economic gain.
