The FAO Crop Prospects and Food Situation Report for the last quarter of 2017 reports that 37 countries remain in need of food assistance. Twenty-nine of those countries are in Africa, seven are in Asia, and one is in Latin America and the Caribbean. Persistent conflict coupled with weather shocks resulting in production shortfalls are behind most of these needs. All of these factors have limited food access and availability in the affected countries, in some cases severely.

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.

According to the recently released 2017 Global Nutrition Report , the world continues to face a serious threat from multiple forms of malnutrition, including undernutrition, overnutrition, and micronutrient deficiency.

Global commodity prices fell slightly in October, according to the latest FAO Food Price Index . Although prices remained higher at 176.4 points than their September levels, the Index is 27 percent below the all-time high seen in February 2011.

The Vegetable Oil Index fell by 1.8 points from September. Soy oil prices drove much of this decline, falling due to improved harvest prospects in the US and ample global supplies for 2017-2018.

The November edition of the FAO GIEWS Food Price Monitoring and Analysis (FPMA) bulletin was released last week. The report finds that global cereal markets continued to be mixed in October.

The benchmark US hard wheat price fell by almost 1 percent due to higher supply estimates and improved weather conditions in key producing regions; however, this price remains 11 percent higher than its October 2016 levels. Wheat prices in the Black Sea region and Argentina rose slightly due to strong export demand and excessive rainfall, respectively.

The October edition of the USDA's World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimate (WASDE) report Released monthly, this report provides data on global and US production and trade of staple commodities, including wheat, coarse grains, rice, and oilseeds.