Reaching Turning Points in Economic Transition: Adjustments to Distortions in Resource-based Consumption of Food

Food consumption changes during transition are analysed using a resource-based cereal equivalent measure to identify three defining turning points: (1) the initial drop in food consumption (experienced by all countries except Romania); (2) stabilisation of food consumption at the new, lower level (reached by CEECs and the Baltic States but not by the former USSR as a whole); (3) achievement of market consumption levels consistent with levels of real income (reached by Hungary and the former Czechoslovakia). Country agricultural self-sufficiency measures are calculated yielding policy implications as accession to the European Union is contemplated by many transitional countries. Comparative Economic Studies (2004) 46, 542–569. doi:10.1057/palgrave.ces.8100050