Marketability of any product first of all means combination of three components – quality, price and engineering solutions of its production which are not generally visible for end user but determinative for advantages of one or another producer. However, it would be wrong to consider market- ability of specific kinds of products as relationship of quality, price and engineering solutions only without analysis into world market trends.

World market of commodity raw products and food has a number of peculiarities and the most important ones were formed due to irregularity of territories over the planet suitable for food production. The following peculiarities may be mentioned:
• steady demand for products (market capacity is determined by limit food requirements to satisfy people’s physiological need for food) under conditions of seasonality of their production and supply;
• irregularity of product flow over years due to unstable weather conditions; • food deficiency in one countries and excess of provisions in other countries; • necessity for foodstuffs stockpiling and long-distance transporting.

In XX century disproportion between production of agricultural products and provisioning determining the above-mentioned peculiarities, smoothed a little. However, the beginning of XXI century brought other problems caused by new serious disagreements between producers and consumers.
Onset of XXI century under the effect of technological progress was accompanied by absolute growth of food production, relative decrease of its share in worldwide commodity production, enhancement of food production concentration. However, consumption pattern is so that human needs for food are mainly satisfied subject to economic situation of the countries and individuals and less to physiological parameters of life support.
Alongside with that XXI century was already marked by conflict of interests and heavy contradictions between participants of food world market. The most crucial issue for market development is conflict between producers and end users in point of food quality and safety. Users are not confident not only in new technologies but also in old ones used for a long time and less known for population. But the conflict situation nowadays is not restricted by the above-mentioned factors only. Opposition takes place between transnational companies and individual producers, between products manufactured with intensive and bioorganic production methods, and even between different branch markets – where it should not exist, it seems.
Importance of meat for human was known long before generation of meat industry from artisan slaughters and butcheries. F. Engels in XIX century emphasized that meat contained “in underdone condition all the most important substances required for organism metabolism”. Among such substances there are proteins, fats, dietary fibers (collagen, elastin), amino acids, fatty acids, water- and fat-soluble vitamins, micro- and macroelements, which function is still being studied by nutraceuticals and dietarians as indispensable nutritional factors in human food.
Meat chemical composition contributes to significant satisfaction of human nutritional need for not only protein, but also for ferrum, zinc and vitamins В3, В6 and В12, which quantity in 100g beef corresponds to 1/3 of day consumption rate.

Production of 1 kg of meat requires 100 times more water than 1 kg of wheat

Therewith XXI century onset was marked by emergence of a number of threats which supposedly would be the result of further development of meat industry and meat consumption.
The following is mentioned among such “threats” by western mass media:
• meat production causes greenhouse effect, since 1kg beef
production requires 39 times more energy as against 1kg soybean production, and beef production is accompanied by emission of 10kg of carbon dioxide gas and methane (at that 10% of methane discharged into the atmosphere every year is produced by cattle);
• meat production leads to soil erosion, contamination and depletion of world water reserves – production of 1 kg of beef effects in irrecoverable loss of several dozens kilo- grams of vegetable soil; 50% cases of water contamination is related to cattle breeding and growth of feed grain; production of 1 kg of meat requires 100 times more water than 1 kg of wheat;
• meat production does not allow to solve the global malnutrition and hunger problem as during conversion of grain into meat 90% proteins, 99% carbohydrates, 100% cellular tissue are lost;
• meat production threatens humankind with diseases communicated during cattle breeding and/or meat consumption (most Important role is of critics regarding meat consumption and its influence on man’s health. Such critics abroad nowadays mainly concerns meat (red meat) consumption. They point out large amount of fat, especially saturated fat, misfit of fatty acid and mineral (in particular, ratio of calcium and phosphorus) meat composition to physiological needs of human body, the relationship between consumption level and diseases incidence, for example, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Meat products (especially traditional ones) contain significant amount of salt (sodium chlorine).
However, it should be emphasized that no direct threats of meat and meat products consumption have been identified. Many cases used as arguments against its production and consumption have nature of very categorical judgments and/or are not proved by any fundamental study that would show cause- and-effect relation between development of meat production, environmental problems and problems of people health.
Such a criticism of meat and meat products often comes from producers of other kinds of food. For example, the sub- script on the package of some trading marks “Cholesterol free”, reveals that the producer does not promote his goods by comparing of its advantages with similar trading marks of vegetable oil (they never contain cholesterol), but compares them to animal fats, which always contain some amount of cholesterol.
It is interesting, that quite aggressive criticism of meat production and consump tion in different countries does not depend upon the level of its consumption per capita, for example, both in European (more than 88 kg per capita annually), and in Russia (about 65 kg per year; in some areas down to only 37 kg). But contrary to Russia, European fundamental research, analysis and sci- entific studies against groundless, excessive criticism of meat consumption and «militant» vegetarianism has a long history.
To know the whole range of meat production accusations in Russia it is enough just to buy a newspaper or watch TV. Most popular topics of such releases and TV programs are the following: • there is no “natural” (!) sausages in the market, only
“chemical” products; • all the sausages contain genetically modified soya pro-
tein, carrageenans, skins, horns, bones, feathers grind-
ed into flour, etc.; • they pour toxic sodium nitrite “in buckets” into sausage
mash; • only vegetable origin products are healthy, etc.
These Russian mass media publications mostly attack sau- sage, contrary to Europe criticizing consumption of beef (that is in good demand there). This is not due to poor quality of sausage, but popularity of this product characterized by high competitive quality at domestic food market.
Unfortunately, in Russia, the country with developed and ac- cepted concept of state policy in the area of healthy food, the most important component of this healthy food – meat prod- ucts – has no protection against mass media, pressing popu- lation to refuse consumption.
Within the recent decade Russia has not seen least unprej- udiced publications and programs for mass audience telling consumers about: • contents, nutrition, biological and energetic value of meat
and meat products; • strict sanitary norms imposed on meat products in Russia
as compared to foreign ones; • advantages and virtues of home traditional meat products; • best enterprises of the industry and modern conditions of
meat goods production; • real amount of food additives, which is several times less in
meat production both for total amount and as per techno-
logical standards as compared to other kinds of food; • need to include meat products into diet of children, women, people busy with manual labor, etc.;
• up to date developments of specialized meat products destined for different population categories, including those for healthy diet, etc. The lack of such activities decreases consumption and competitive ability of meat products. Mass media aggression di- minishes attraction of meat and meat products for consum- ers on behalf of other food categories, including fast food.
In such conditions, on the background of negative image of meat products created by mass media, sustaining and de- velopment of its competitive ability should be carried out via imparting information to consumers using bright, remember- able illustrations of its importance in man’s nutrition basing on available and recent scientific data, and should be the com- mon task of all the enterprises of the industry.

Author: Anastasia Semenova, Deputy Head on scientific work at GNU V.M. Gorbatov VNIIMP of Rosselkhozakademia, PhD, associated professor

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