What's New

The latest Food Price Monitoring and Analysis (FPMA) Bulletin from GIEWS, released on December 9, reports mixed but low trends for global wheat prices in November. Benchmark US Wheat (No. 2 Hard Red Winter) prices fell slightly from October and remain nearly 10 percent below November 2015 levels. This decline was driven by higher 2016 production and ending stock estimates, as well as a strong US dollar; however, falling prices slowed somewhat due to unfavorable 2017 weather forecasts in several wheat-producing countries coupled with strong import demand.

The FAO Food Price Index, released today, fell slightly in November but remains 10.4 percent higher than its November 2015 level. This month's small decline, driven mostly by falling oil prices, interrupted the rising trend seen since the start of 2016.

The Cereal Price Index fell 0.6 percent in November and is as much as 12 points below its year-earlier level. Good global supply prospects, particularly for wheat in Argentina and Australia, have supported this decrease.

Agriculture played a leading role in the UN Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP22), held in November in Marrakesh, Morocco. This year’s conference theme was “Africa, Adaptation, and Agriculture”; the event focused on helping countries establish specific strategies to achieve the agreement reached at COP21 (the Paris Agreement) to cap climate change below two degrees Celsius of warming in this century.

Value chain development (VCD) aims to address poverty by strengthening linkages among agricultural value chain actors (producers, laborers, traders, processors, retailers, and consumers), allowing those actors to take better advantage of market opportunities.

The USDA’s monthly report on World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) was released on November 9.