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The article examines the essence and significance of the quality management system in the process of ensuring the quality and safety of agri-food products, considers the main aspects and prerequisites for its introduction on Ukrainian enterprises in the context of the implementation of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union. The legal and regulatory documents governing the safety of agri-food products, the level of their harmonization in Ukraine and implementation by Ukrainian operators of the agri-food market are analyzed. It was revealed that mainly large enterprises are currently implementing a quality management system, which is primarily associated with additional costs for its implementation. Attention is focused on the necessity to comply with the requirements of ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems, ISO 22000 Food Safety Management Systems, as well as the principles of the International System for Hazard Analysis and Control at Critical Points of HACCP to increase the competitiveness of agricultural and food products in the domestic and foreign markets and ensure it sustainable quality. The basic requirements of food product standards have been introduced. The dynamics of the development of certification processes at Ukrainian enterprises is traced, in particular, by the number of received quality certificates of the ISO group in Ukraine. General economic and specific reasons that hinder the growth of the quality and safety of agrі-food products at Ukrainian enterprises were identified, including: low level of technological equipment and slow development of innovative processes; imperfection of the domestic regulatory framework in the field of product quality regulation; significant price disparity and the presence of a large number of intermediaries in the chain from the producer of raw materials to the customer etc. A quality management system is proposed, which is a socio-ecological and economic system and combines a well-coordinated interaction of various types of quality management subsystems.

The article is devoted to studying sources of water law in Russia in the second half of the XIX century. The authors’ attention is focused on the correlation between law and customary law as sources of water legislation. It is emphasized that the topic under consideration is weakly studied in pre-revolutionary legal literature and modern historical and legal literature. The paper presents Russian legal scholars of the second half of the XIX century on the discussion topic of determining the place and role of custom in legal reality. The analysis of the sources of water law allows the authors to conclude that the main formal legal source of water law in Russia in the second half of the XIX century was the law, while customary law, as a regulator of water relations, prevailed in the peasant community.

The article examines the essence of foreign economic activity of enterprises, the features and prospects of its implementation in the field of agrarian and industrial complex. Based on the conducted analysis, it is proved that agrarian export of Ukraine plays a significant role in the formation of the budget and GDP of the country, since its share in 2018 was 14.2% of GDP and 33.4% of the total national exports of goods. The dynamics of export-import operations of the agrarian sector is explored and it is found that it demonstrates a positive trend in contrast to the general foreign trade balance of Ukraine. The analysis of the agrarian exports structure in 2010-2019 confirms the growth of the share of the majority of agrarian products types sold abroad. However, Ukrainian exports are mainly oriented towards raw materials, which, among other reasons, is associated with technological backwardness and the limited ability of domestic agricultural producers to purchase modern equipment and technologies due to theirs low solvency. The commodity orientation of Ukrainian exports makes the competitive position of Ukraine in foreign markets vulnerable, since the demand for commodities is unstable and is characterized by significant price volatility. The geographical structure of foreign trade in agrarian products and the possibilities of its further diversification are investigated. The majority of Ukrainian products in Europe are purchased in Poland, Italy and Germany. Significant connoisseurs of Ukrainian products are also Turkey, China, India, Egypt. Ukrainian exports should be expanded to Asian and Eastern countries. The key problems that put the brakes on the development of the foreign economic activity of the enterprises of agrarian and industrial complex and hinder the competitiveness increase of domestic agrarian products in the international market are identified. A number of measures are proposed to promote the further development of the foreign economic activity of the enterprises of agrarian and industrial complex, including the development of appropriate strategies taking into account global market trends, harmonization and compliance with the quality and safety standards of agrarian products, improving the innovative component, strengthening state support (including financial) of the export-oriented agrarian enterprises, improving the investment climate, and more.

The article investigates the peculiarities of consumer behavior in modern market conditions. The theoretical and methodological approaches to the consumer behavior formation are highlighted; the exogenous and endogenous factors affecting it are identified. The various models of consumer behavior are characterized, depending on their income level. It has been found that lower-income consumers are more likely to behave more rationally; they buy those products that meet urgent needs and are more attractive in price. The middle class mainly chooses products on the criterion of "price-quality". The degree of rationality in their behavior will depend on the stability of the economy and consumer expectations regarding real future income. As for high-income consumers, their demand does not depend on price, since the higher cost of the goods they buy undermines their wealth and status. The level and dynamics of incomes of the population of Ukraine, including in urban and rural areas, are analyzed. The analysis shows an increase in the share of the population with high incomes (for comparison, in 2018, 27.4% of Ukrainians had incomes over UAH 5,160 against 12.6% in 2017), and this trend is observed as in cities (30.5% in 2018 compared with 13.6% in 2017) and in rural areas (21.2% in 2018 compared with 10.4% in 2017). However, rural residents predominantly have lower total incomes compared with urban residents: in 2016, according to surveys of the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, urban households received an average of 5842 UAH per month (per capita 28080 UAH), rural - 5871 UAH (per capita 2,706 UAH) in 2017 - respectively 7,749 UAH (per capita 3,725 UAH) and 7,542 UAH (per capita 3,476 UAH) in 2018 - respectively 9,722.5 UAH and 9073.3 UAH. The increase in income is due to an increase in the minimum and average level of wages, the volume of transfer payments (in particular, subsidies and other types of social assistance), income from entrepreneurial activity, and etc. A significant part of the incomes of the Ukrainian population is occupied by wages, which increased from 40.8% in 2010 to 45.6% in 2017. However, this is a statement of nominal income growth, which is not enough to meet even the basic needs of consumers in the conditions of rapid price increase. Despite the actual increase in incomes, the purchasing power of consumers in Ukraine is quite low, which is caused by a decrease in real incomes of the population. The dynamics and cost structure of Ukrainian consumers is investigated. The imbalance of the budget of consumers, as well as the lack of actual income to meet the existing needs of the population, are revealed. The gap between the incomes of the population and its expenditures on the purchase of goods and services is quite small, meaning that Ukrainians spend almost all their money resources on current consumption, and thus the possibility of accumulating savings is low, which in turn reduces the prospect of increasing demand for more expensive goods, including long-term use, travel, real estate and more. The lowest share of expenditures on purchasing goods and services in the annual income in the period 2005-2017 was 76% in 2010 and the highest in 2017 was 89%. According to preliminary results of 2018, the share of expenses of Ukrainians in their income is on the average within 85%. Consumers spend more than half of their income on food, driven by low wages for most workers, high unemployment and underemployment, the disparity in current prices and real incomes of the population. The share of household expenditures on housing maintenance (including ongoing repairs), water, electricity, gas and other fuels is rising from 10.26% in 2010 to 18.3% in 2017. Consumers spend about 6% of their income on buying clothes and shoes (with 27.5% of the population having insufficient funds to upgrade their outerwear and shoes for the cold season once every 5 years). On average, only 4% of their budget is spent on healthcare. The GDP indicator and deflator indices, which are indicators of the real consumer purchasing power, are analyzed. Comparing the GDP deflator and the consumption deflator, we see that their dynamics in 2010-2014 have had a similar trend, but since the turning point of 2016, which is characterized by an increase in physical GDP, consumers are behaving more restrained about purchases, even as the pace of growth slows and the gradual signs of overcoming the negative effects of the crisis. The reason for this behavior of consumers is pessimistic expectations about the future economic situation in the country, reduction of accumulated savings, and an increase in the poverty level of the population. The happiness index is considered as a criterion that affects the propensity to consumption and saving. Analyzing the ranking of the countries of the world by the index of happiness, it should be noted that in 2018, Ukraine ranked 138th out of 156 countries, down 6 steps, compared to the previous year. The measures to increase the economic efficiency of consumer behavior and maximization of its utility are proposed. Under the conditions of insufficient financial and material security of the population of Ukraine, an important step of the state for maintaining the purchasing power of consumers is subsidizing public utilities, providing benefits and subsidies for obtaining health care services, transportation, recreation, catering and more. However, such a tool will not give the expected results without comprehensive treatment of the country's economy. It is necessary to reform the remuneration system, in particular to work out an organizational and economic mechanism for legalizing the shadow wage, collecting relevant social contributions and taxes from it; to improve the methodology for establishing a living minimum and bring it into line with the real needs of the consumer; systematically carry out proper indexation of income, especially in private business; increase targeted investment in capital expansion of the real sector of the economy, which will simultaneously increase jobs quantity, GDP and household incomes; to revise the regulation of prices for of essential commodities and many other measures.

The COVID-19 pandemic that has swept the world has created a number of diverse threats to the development of the countries’ economies, including Ukraine and Latvia. An adequate assessment of these threats is very difficult and, moreover, often has a probabilistic character due to their singularity and novelty. The COVID-19 crisis mainly affected the tertiary sector, in particular companies involved in tourism, international passenger transport, accommodation, catering, entertainment, and cultural events, where demand fell sharply, and jobs fell. They were also followed by a contraction in demand in the manufacturing and transport sectors, which were mainly oriented towards external demand and exports. At the same time, there was a shortage of specialists and an increase in employment in areas such as information and communication technology and healthcare. The purpose of the article is to study the state and trends of the impact of COVID-19 on the economic situation in Ukraine and Latvia, in particular, to determine the socio-economic losses incurred by countries due to quarantine. The study identifying the possible economic policies in order to select the most appropriate instruments COVID-19 mitigation, as well as Latvian and Ukrainian economic structure improvement.

Over the last 50 years, the loss of soil organic carbon has cost Ukraine an average of $US985.6 million (25.2 billion UAH) a year in terms of the capital value of the land. Long-term trends and the current state of the weighted average carbon content in arable soils indicate a worsening situation. Sustainable management of soil organic carbon (SOC) could be a foundation for handling or, even, solving several critical issues including land degradation, sustainable agriculture and climate change. In this context, our holistic concept of sustainable SOC management considers the goal block, the subject-object block, the information block, the organizational-and-technological block and the result block. For practical implementation, we have developed a conceptual framework for sustainable management of SOC that should deliver a stable level of SOC (not lower than 2010) by 2020 and a gradual increase, by no less than 0.1%, by 2030.

The current state of financial support for Ukrainian agriculture indicates the need to intensify investment processes and increase the efficiency of investment. The purpose of the article is to present the results of the conducted assessment and analysis of the relative cost effectiveness of crop production using the method of analysis of the environment of functioning, which made it possible to identify the features of investments use and to calculate their payback period. The possibility of reducing direct labor costs and direct material costs in the crops production has been identified. It has been established that the greatest potential for reducing direct labor costs and direct material costs of production is typical for nine crops (rye, oats, buckwheat, dried cereals, soybeans, rape, sunflower, potatoes, and greenhouse vegetables), since the indicators are less than 0.5. At the same time, the potential for growing wheat, millet, open-ground vegetables and berries is used to 100 %. The potential for increasing the volume of sales of berry crops, buckwheat, rape and colza seeds, and process sugar beets is 1, that is, 100 % used, but the production of nine crops has a significant unrealized potential of more than 50 % (the potential for increasing the volume of sales for existing expenses is ranging from 0 to 0.5). Having accepted the reduction in direct material costs as the goal of optimizing crop production development indicators in the near future, it has been found that the discounted payback period of an investment is 15 years that requires the strengthening of the investment role in agriculture by labor stimulating of employees., Современное состояние финансового обеспечения сельского хозяйства Украины свидетельствует о необходимости активизации инвестиционных процессов и повышения эффективности вложения средств. Цель статьи — представить результаты оценки и анализа относительной эффективности затрат на производство продукции растениеводства с использованием метода анализа среды функционирования, что позволило выявить особенности использования инвестиций и рассчитать срок их окупаемости. Идентифицирована возможность сокращения прямых затрат на оплату труда и прямых материальных затрат при производстве продукции растениеводства. Установлено, что наибольший потенциал уменьшения прямых затрат на оплату труда и прямых материальных затрат на производство характерен для девяти культур (рожь, овес, гречка, сушеные зерновые, соя, рапс, подсолнечник, картофель, овощи закрытого грунта), поскольку показатели меньше 0,5. В то же время потенциал по выращиванию пшеницы, проса, овощей открытого грунта и ягодных культур использован на 100 %. Потенциал увеличения объема реализации продукции ягодных культур, гречихи, семена рапса и кользы, сахарной свеклы фабричной составляет 1, то есть использован на 100 %, однако производство девяти культур имеет существенный нереализованный потенциал — более 50 % (потенциал увеличения объема реализации продукции за имеющихся расходов находится в пределах от 0 до 0,5). Приняв величину сокращения прямых материальных затрат как цель оптимизации показателей развития растениеводства на ближайшую перспективу, установлено, что дисконтированный срок окупаемости инвестиции равен 15 лет, что требует усиления роли инвестиций в сельское хозяйство путем стимулирования труда наемных работников., Сучасний стан фінансового забезпечення сільського господарства України свідчить про необхідність активізації інвестиційних процесів і підвищення ефективності вкладення коштів. Мета статті — презентувати результати оцінювання й аналізу відносної ефективності витрат на виробництво продукції рослинництва з використанням методу аналізу середовища функціонування, що дозволило виявити особливості використання інвестицій і розрахувати строк їхньої окупності. Ідентифіковано можливість скорочення прямих витрат на оплату праці й прямих матеріальних витрат під час виробництва продукції рослинництва. Установлено, що найбільший потенціал зменшення прямих витрат на оплату праці і прямих матеріальних витрат на виробництво характерний для дев’яти культур (жито, овес, гречка, зернові сушені, соя, ріпак, соняшник,картопля, овочі закритого ґрунту), оскільки показники менші за 0,5. Водночас потенціал із вирощування пшениці, проса, овочів відкритого ґрунту та ягідних культур використаний на 100 %. Потенціал збільшення обсягу реалізації продукції ягідних культур, гречки, насіння ріпаку й кользи, цукрового буряку фабричного становить 1, тобто використаний на 100 %, однак виробництво дев’яти культур має істотний нереалізований потенціал — більше ніж 50 % (потенціал збільшення обсягу реалізації продукції за наявних витрат перебуває в межах від 0 до 0,5). Прийнявши величину скорочення прямих матеріальних витрат як мету оптимізації показників розвитку рослинництва на найближчу перспективу, установлено, що дисконтований строк окупності інвестиції становить 15 років, що вимагає посилення ролі інвестицій у сільське господарство шляхом стимулювання праці найманих працівників.

The development of the world economy is accompanied by the emergence of new causal relationships that shape the conditions and determine the features of the economic development of the regions of Ukraine in a complex and changing environment. Modern economic development requires searching for new effective means of planning to increase the level of welfare as the basis for the socio-economic development of the state as a whole. To solve this problem, indicative planning methods can be used. The purpose of the study is to develop the directions of indicative planning to ensure the socio-economic development of the regions of Ukraine in the conditions of economic transformations. The object of research is the process of socio-economic development of the regions of Ukraine, which is based on the use indicative planning methods. Planning of social and economic development in the dynamic conditions of structural and organizational transformations of the national economy, starting the investment and innovation activity is an actual, complex and multifaceted problem. For its effective solution, it is necessary to use effective means of economic appraisal of expediency, effectiveness and risks of socio-economic transformations, as well as appropriate means of planning, which should include indicative planning. The use of indicative planning is an adequate means of establishing substantiated guidelines for balanced socio-economic development at the macro level. Usage of the indicative planning system in general is decided according to the principle: the market – as much as possible, the plan – as needed.

The global financial crisis and the ensuing global recession not only adversely affected global growth and poverty, but also presented constraints and challenges to public policy. Even though the world economy is slowly returning to growth, the recovery was difficult and lasted for almost 10 years. Preparing for the future requires an assessment of the consequences of the crisis and future challenges. Since 2010 economic growth in Latvia has been one of the fastest in the EU (from 2011-2018, GDP, on average, increased by 3.5% annually), however in 2019 economic growth has moderated. Growth opportunities are limited both by the uncertainty in the external environment (“trade wars” on the global economy, the outcome of Brexit, slower growth in EU countries, etc.), and the existing economic structure, which also negatively affects the competitiveness of Latvian producers. In the competitiveness rankings regularly published by the World Economic Forum (WEF), Latvia lags far behind other new EU member states, incl. other Baltic States. The economy of Ukraine currently is in very difficult environment: carrying out the Anti-terrorism activity in the eastern part, occupation of Crimea, the uncertainty in the system of political processes, the economic instability and other factors slow down its development. The deepening of the political and economic crisis in Ukraine, on the one hand, and transformational processes towards expanding European integration, on the other hand, daily create new challenges that domestic economic entities have not encountered before, and which are difficult to predict. The aim of the research is to carry out a comprehensive assessment of the dynamics of macroeconomic indicators of the social and economic development of the national economies of Latvia and Ukraine over the past 10 years (from 2010 to 2019) and identify the factors influencing it, to improve the forecasting of further trends and the planning of anti-crisis measures. As a result of the study, possible directions of economic policy were identified to improve the economic structure of Latvia and Ukraine in order to promote their sustainable development and competitiveness in the world market.