The consumption of fish and seafood occupies a significant place in the world’s supply of food to the population. According to FAO, fish accounts for 17% of animal protein in the diet of the world’s population and 7% of all protein consumed. The consumption of fish products is also growing against the background of the active development of aquaculture. The subject of the study is aquaculture in the world and in Russia, the purpose of the work is to analyze the state and generalization of the Russian experience, as well as measures and tools to support the development of the industry. In the preparation, statistical information from FAO, state statistics of Russia, statistics from scientific institutions of the Russian Academy of Sciences, scientific monographs, and scientific papers were used. To achieve this objective, the global and domestic state of the aquaculture industry, as well as measures and instruments of the state, federal, and non-state support provided to producers were analyzed.

The article presents an analysis of the small business environment and development in Russia, discusses state programs for the development of small and medium-sized businesses, a system of measures to support small businesses in the agricultural sector of the economy, and the role of franchising as one of the areas of small business development. The main problems of the development of small agribusiness, the introduction of innovations and the digital transformation of agricultural production in small export-oriented entrepreneurship are identified. The measures to improve the efficiency of small businesses, including these during the COVID-19 pandemic, are described.

The article discloses, systematizes and supplements the fundamentals of managing the competitiveness of agricultural enterprises integrated into clusters, as well as the cluster structures themselves, considering the current provisions of economic theory and the theory of managing large socio-economic systems, and using the appropriate methodology. Approaches to managing the competitiveness of agricultural enterprises included in clusters using competitive strategies are discussed. The organizational and economic mechanism of creating an agrarian cluster is shown in order to increase the competitiveness of not only enterprises, but also the cluster as a whole, considering external and internal backbone factors. The strategy for increasing the competitiveness of agricultural clusters considers the concept of ‘competitiveness of an agricultural cluster’ as its basic characteristic that is formed from intra-cluster mechanisms of cooperation and interaction of cluster enterprises, which reflects the ability of participants to generate innovative technologies, produce new competitive products and promote them to target markets, including global ones, and, thus, maintain and increase competitive advantages in the field of specialization of the agricultural cluster. The article presents a technique for assessing the achievement of target benchmarks of the strategy for increasing the competitiveness of an agricultural cluster taking into consideration the competitive potential of cluster member enterprises along with the definition of the set of cluster effects obtained.

In order to fulfill the set task of achieving GDP growth rates above the world level by 2021, an increase in investment of up to 25% of the country’s GDP is required by 2024. At the same time, domestic demand for products of the agricultural sector is growing insignificantly. Overproduction in some items puts pressure on prices, so the need to develop exports is felt more and more acutely. The development of exports of agricultural products in Russia in recent years is one of the priority areas. The activities of enterprises to increase exports are supported by the state support measures, therefore the amount of products to be supplied for export is constantly growing. The article provides the results of the analysis of the current state of export activity of agricultural enterprises in the Kaluga region. The factors that hinder the development of export potential and the measures necessary to reduce their negative impact are identified. The promising areas for the development of export potential, such as development of cluster-network associations, digitization of processes for the production and sales of goods for export, application and diversification of production, etc., are shown.

The aim of the study is to analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of budgetary and extra-budgetary support and stimulation of innovative activity in agriculture. Using the methods of complex and struc-tural-dynamic analysis, expert assessments and some others, studies of do-mestic and foreign scientists, statistical data, materials of state programs have been analyzed. This article discusses the main indicators of innovative activities of agricultural. The study showed that the level of innovative activity in the industry remains low due to the lack of finance from manufacturers; it depends on the level of government support. Small and medium-sized enterprises are most dependent on government support; incentive measures and the amount of government support should be long-term. It is proposed to create a center of competence, the purpose of which will be to stimulate innovative activity and reduce the influence of obstacles. To solve the problem of lack of financial resources for the implementation of innovative activities, an operator is needed, such functions can be taken over by Russian Venture Company (RVC) or the National technology initiative (NTI) project office.