What's New

The December World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates from USDA reports increased supplies for major global commodities.

The gathering of the Eleventh Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization in Buenos Aires Dec. 10-13 was impressive in size. It brought together nearly 4,000 ministers, senior trade officials and other delegates from the WTO's 164 members and observers as well as representatives from civil society, business and the global media.

Sustainability standards and certification schemes such as Fairtrade , Organic , UTZ , and Rainforest Alliance are gaining in importance, especially in the coffee sector. Today, at least 30 percent of the coffee area under cultivation worldwide is certified. Consumer demand for certified products is rising, as is the involvement of private, public, and third-sector actors. In developing countries, governments and Western development agencies have been launching projects to promote farmer adoption of standards.

Although food security has long been recognized as a universal human right, 815 million people worldwide remained undernourished in 2016. In addition, the number of hungry people around the world increased by 38 million between 2015 and 2016, marking a reversal in the trend of falling hunger seen over the past 20 years.

As the Eleventh WTO Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires wraps up this week, the role of trade in reducing hunger and ensuring food security must be prioritized. This calls for enhanced international cooperation on a multilateral scale.

The latest edition of the FAO Food Price Index saw a continued, albeit marginal, decline in November. The 0.5-percent decline was driven largely by a fall in dairy prices, which offset rising sugar prices. The Index remains 2.3 percent above its November 2016 level.