Transition economies have historically been important producers of agricultural products. Under central planning, distortions resulted in atypical food consumption and associated production patterns compared to market economies, with low and medium-income populations producing and eating...

Per capita food consumption measured in cereal equivalents follows a well-defined path relative to income in market economies; non-market economies, however, exhibited a very different relationship prior to transition. As part of the transition process, these countries must now remove the...