COMPETITIVENESS OF HORTICULTURAL PRODUCTS AS A PRECONDITION OF INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT

Modem world globalization processes, a highly competitive environment and meeting the requirements of national interests, place new demands on the strategy of development of the horticultural industry in Ukraine, which should be aimed at increasing the competitiveness of fruit and berry products, its quality and environmental safety. Issues of competitiveness, quality and safety of agricultural products - are the most important among research of scientists, especially in developing countries. Improving the quality and safety of agricultural products is one of the main strategies for the development of agriculture in Ukraine; therefore, economic indicators are depreciated on the secondary plan: profit, profitability level, and the indicators of biological and social value of products become priority. That is why the main purpose of writing the article is to clarify and improve the indicators of assessing the competitiveness of horticultural products as a precondition for the development of the industry, its competitiveness. To achieve the research purpose the state of the industry, its competitive advantages was analyzed; an expert evaluation of the main parameters of the competitiveness of fruit and berry products was carried out, a survey was carried out by both producers and consumers of products on the importance of individual indicators in assessing the overall competitiveness of products. As a result of the conducted research, the methodology of evaluating the competitiveness of fruit and berry products with the account of biological, ecological, production and economic parameters was specified and the main technological stages of the formation of these indicators in horticulture were determined.