Some aspects of development of agricultural holdings in the Lipetsk region

The objective of this research displays peculiarities of formation and functioning of integrated business structures in the agricultural sector. The preconditions for their foundation and ubiquitous distribution were the transformational processes experienced by the economy of agriculture in recent decades. The goal of the study is to bring to light the main trends in the development of agroholding structures in the agricultural sector of the Lipetsk region. The main method of investigation is a system analysis. New economic conditions that have arisen in the agricultural sector of the Russian Federation have led to the emergence of integration ties between agricultural and agro-industrial enterprises. The practice of foreign and domestic enterprises shows that agroholdings contribute to the overall increase in agricultural production, and the synergetic effect from merging of resources belonging to segmental enterprises takes place as well. The article gives examples of successful functioning of agricultural holdings operating within the territory of the Lipetsk region, in particular JSC Kolos, which combines agricultural and processing facilities. This integrated formation is mainly specialized in flour-milling industry. A great deal of grain buying expenses in the whole of the production prime cost in JSC Kolos compelled its management to create their own raw material storage by means of the formation of an integrated business association. Thus, the important reason for the entry of agricultural enterprises into agro-industrial groups is the removal of intermediates in the transfer of products to processing organizations. However, in practice, often the creation of agroholdings primarily turns to be equitable to the interest of investor which occurs detrimental to the interest of an agricultural body. In this regard, the regulation of their activities should be made not only with the use of a market mechanism, but a well-established system of regulatory legal acts must be applied.