The introductory lecture was devoted to the types of information sources and the basic terms necessary to analyze the world agricultural market. According to a representative of the Russian Ministry of Agriculture Yevgeny Zaitsev, analytics is based on fundamental work that is behind a company’s successful strategy and public policy course. It is analytics that determines the direction of international cooperation within the context of a crucial shift in geopolitical tectonic plates. “It is hard to find a more complicated period for the agricultural markets than the one we are witnessing,” he said. “Trade chains that have been established for years are changing, prices are at record levels, and the agricultural agenda becomes more relevant day by day. The industry has never faced so many challenges, especially geopolitical ones. Against this background, agriculture markets analysis and forecasts are playing an increasingly important role in agricultural exports”.
Dmitry Gorin, a representative of the Russian Ministry of Agriculture, noted that international trade data is a huge information flow from all over the world that needs to be processed. He listed the key information sources on foreign trade, and explained how the international statistics system is built, which organizations are engaged in data analysis and how to use the collected information.
Then, the representatives of the Agroexport examined in detail the causes of food inflation and jumps in world prices. They also paid particular attention to logistics and its influence on agricultural exports.
In the practical part, Agroexport’s top analysts conducted a study devoted to the agriculture markets analysis. They qualified the countries of the Persian Gulf and East Asia as the most promising ones for Russian agricultural exports and gave course participants the opportunity to analyze these markets in accordance with the predetermined pattern. Next, the experts made a review of six case studies from the crop and livestock industries, which illustrated how the leading exporting countries were adapting to changes in the world agricultural market.
The program ended with a lecture by a business representative — Sabina Sodikova, General Director of the Russian representative office of Agrozan Commodities DMCC and founder of the Academy of International Business Practice. She enumerated the key factors affecting agricultural prices, and pointed out what indicators she was guided while making strategic agricultural export decisions.
MGIMO continues the cycle of advanced training programs organized jointly by the institute together with the Agroexport. The new course is devoted to specialists from Russian agribusiness companies involved in world agricultural marketing. Participants will learn about the role that marketing plays in agricultural exports, get acquainted with marketing research in export markets and a product promotion strategy, as well as analyze successful cases from Russian and foreign practices.