Improvement of the Food Security Status of the Eurasian Economic Union Countries Through Customs Regulation of Meat and Dairy Trade

Abstract

Establishing a sufficient food supply is one of the major issues of global and national economic security. In 2021, the world food market may face rather strong pressure caused by the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the production and supply of food and agricultural products. The United Nations forecasts an unprece­dented deficiency of food along with the increase in prices and warns that the World Food Program budget may not cope with the rising food insecurity problem that could threaten even those countries where it has been long combated. The members of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) are among vulnerable economies in terms of food self-sufficiency and security. Currently, the dependence of the EAEU on imports of some categories of meat products exceeds 40%, milk and dairy products—26%. In the course of the pandemic-related disruptions of production chains, the dependence on foreign suppliers may increase significantly. Therefore, one of the major security concerns for the EAEU is how to reduce reliance on food imports and thus decrease the vulnerability of food supply, which particularly challenges meat and dairy indus­tries. In this chapter, the authors address the main problems in the spheres of meat and dairy production and supply in the EAEU and discuss how reliance on imports in these sectors could be reduced by implementing customs regulations.