STRENGTHENING OF THE ECONOMIC POWER OF THE DOMINATING ENTITIES IN THE FOOD INDUSTRY

The majority of food markets comes under the priority and socially important ones. Promptly growing global companies actively get on the Russian food markets under the conditions of globalization. The revelation of specifics of processes of strengthening the economic power of the dominating entities in the food industry is the base for the development of decisions on the state regulation of development of food production and food price formation. The article considers the essence of the concept of oligopolization that allows to prove the essence of strengthening the economic power in the market (in the industry) of several largest companies, to show the variability inherent for oligopoly, to uncover the reasons that cause these changes, to reveal the orientation of high-quality changes and to determine the historical regularity of development of oligopolistic markets on its basis; to analyse the consequences of this phenomenon for society. Within the research, the concept of oligopolization is applied to the problematics of development of the dominating entities that function in food markets. The work analyses the factors that influence the growth of intensity of processes of oligopolization (the change of scopes and structure of consumer demand; the discrepancy of investment policy of oligopolists; the advancing development of network of foreign subsidiaries, the acceleration of growth of transnational capital in the developed countries and the growth of activity of oligopolists from the developing countries) and designates the peculiarities of influence of these factors on the development of food markets. The peculiarities of activity of the factors functioning in the global food markets are considered in the aspects of sales revenues; the positions held by these companies in the top ratings; the investment and innovative activity of companies. Special attention is paid to the issues of penetration and functioning of foreign companies in the Russian food markets.