FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF CLUSTER ACTIVITY IN RUSSIA'S AGRICULTURE

The purpose of the paper was to analyze the current state of development of cluster activity in the agro-industrial complex (AIC) of Russia, to identify the main constraints and to develop proposals for enhancing the formation of clusters. In preparing the article, there were used information from the Ministries of Economic Development and Agriculture of the Russian Federation, the Russian and European cluster observatories, scientific works of domestic scientists on the topic. The following methods of scientific research were used: statistical-economic, monographic, abstract-logical, design-constructive. At present, the active processes of developing cluster activities are underway in the Russian agro-industrial complex. But not all of the initial set of registered projects for creating clusters in the agro-industrial complex were implemented. It is revealed that the main constraints on the wide spreading of clusters are: methodological flaws, non-optimal segregation of duties at the public and private levels, underdevelopment of the regulatory framework, the lack of a common mechanism of formation and a model of cluster functioning at the regional level. In order to compensate for these shortcomings, a mechanism of formation (order) and a model (organizational structure) of the functioning of agro-industrial clusters are proposed. The introduction of the mechanism of cluster formation, due to the savings from optimization of costs and processes of commodity circulation, will allow to reduce the cost of production and increase the efficiency of economic interactions of enterprises.