STATE REGULATION OF THE SNAIL FARMING MARKET: INSTITUTIONAL PREREQUISITES, GLOBAL CHALLENGES AND PRIORITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT

Abstract

It is substantiated that snail farming is a promising type of livestock farming in Ukraine, as it ensures the production of high value-added products that are in high demand in the global market of heliculture products. It has been established that in recent decades, the demand for snail products has been growing in European and Chinese markets due to their importance for a healthy lifestyle and proper nutrition. It is found that the development of the snail farming industry is an attractive type of entrepreneurial activity for the farm sector, which has a significant impact on strengthening the farming institution and structural adjustment of the rural economy. It has been established that the basic institutional prerequisite for the expanded reproduction of the snail farming potential in Ukraine is the formation of modern tools for the state regulation of this link of livestock farming as a logically ordered set of budgetary and fiscal, monetary, permitting, regulatory and advisory methods and tools of regulatory influence on business entities specialising in snail farming. It is proved that the formation of a domestic system of state regulation of the snail farming market should include a combination of national templates for supporting snail farming and the best foreign practices of regulatory influence on the functioning of snail farms. It is substantiated that at the moment Ukraine has already formed a critically necessary set of regulations and standards for quality and safety control of snails (requirements for the conditions of keeping snails, their feeding, treatment, as well as procedures for granting permits for activities related to the cultivation of snails) as an integral part of the State regulation of snail farming, which creates conditions for the sale of this type of livestock products on the world market. It is proved that the key link in the State regulation of the snail farming market is the system of financial and economic incentives, which includes a set of fiscal, credit, institutional and property preferences for business entities of various organisational and legal forms and different forms of ownership. It has been established that the activation of farms' activities in terms of expanded reproduction of the resource and production potential of snail farming depends on the diversification of methods and instruments of direct and indirect budget support, which will allow attracting additional investments in technological re-equipment and reconstruction of fixed assets and increase the level of profitability and, accordingly, the investment attractiveness of snail farming.