THE SUSTAINABILITY INDICATORS OF THE SYSTEM OF AGRICULTURAL CONSUMER COOPERATION
Background. With the adoption in 1995 of the Federal law "on agricultural cooperation" begins the revival of consumer cooperation in the agricultural sector of our country. On March 29, 2006 the Ministry of agriculture of the Russian Federation approved the Concept of development of agricultural consumer cooperatives. Systematic measures of state support for small producers and consumer cooperatives in rural areas are being implemented with the introduction of the State program for the development of agriculture and regulation of markets for agricultural products, raw materials and food for 2008-2012. This program was extended for 2013-2020, the agricultural policy of the majority of subjects of the Russian Federation currently involves the implementation of a set of measures aimed at the development of agricultural consumer cooperation. At the same time, the role of consumer cooperatives in supporting small farms and their contribution to agricultural production remain insignificant. The number and performance of cooperatives are still determined by the amount of state support, and it is impossible to talk about the creation of a self-sufficient system of agricultural consumer cooperation in the country or in any region. The traditional assessment of the effectiveness of measures of state support of cooperatives using indicators of their products, the number of members, does not allow to characterize the ability of cooperatives to develop steadily. The purpose of this work is to identify indicators that characterize the sustainability of the system of agricultural consumer cooperation. Methods. The data of Rosstat for 2008-2017, the works of domestic scientists on the problem of research; comparison method, system-functional approach to the study of relationships within the system of agricultural consumer cooperation. Results. The factors characterizing attractiveness of consumer cooperation in separate branches of agriculture are considered; the system of indicators for an assessment of stability of system of agricultural consumer cooperation is offered. Conclusions. The identified factors characterizing sectoral differences in the potential of agricultural producers to benefit from cooperation can be used to differentiate the measures of state support for cooperatives. The proposed system of indicators can be used to assess the dynamics of the agricultural consumer cooperation system from the standpoint of its sustainability.