CCP: ME 02/5

1. The provision of market information and intelligence services on basic food commodities, including meat and dairy products, contributes to fulfilling one of the core functions of the Organisation and one of its Strategic Objectives. These services are the basis for providing analysis and advice to governments, as well as for action by FAO and other organizations concerned with agriculture development and food security. In light of the extension of the mandate of the IGG to cover dairy activities, the Group is requested to review and comment on the work programmes for meat and dairy products for the next biennium.

2. With the objective of providing up-to-date data, information and assessments related to global market developments of meat and dairy products, the Secretariat has undertaken the following tasks, as a part of its on-going activities:

• preparing market reports which update commodity specific relevant information on production, consumption, processing, trade, policies, prices and other market intelligence, increasingly using electronic means to facilitate the dissemination of these reports and to provide networking opportunities for discussion and gathering local information on meat and dairy trade issues, through the active meat and dairy e-mail lists;
• developing and maintaining country specific databases on market information related meat and dairy products, as well as analytical tools, to support analysis that go into GIEWS and other corporate FAO outputs such as State of Food and Agriculture, AT2015/2030, Commodity Market Review and documentation of the Committee on Commodity Problems and the Committee on World Food Security;
• monitoring and reporting on changes in commodity and trade policies, particularly in developing countries, on a regular basis through the publication of "Review of Basic Food Policies", and assessing their impact on trade and food security;
• determining the medium-term prospects for meat and dairy products, in conjunction with other basic foodstuffs, on an annual basis, to provide inputs into longer term perspective studies undertaken by FAO as well as into the work of partner international organisations, such as OECD, the International Dairy Federation, the Pan-American Dairy Federation, the International Federation of Agricultural Producers, International Meat Secretariat, International Congress of Meat Science and Technology. Such assessments are also used for the analysis of longer term impacts of market developments such as animal disease outbreaks, policy changes etc.;
• monitoring and assessing the effects on underlying market fundamentals of developments/issues, such as biotechnology costs of animal diseases and organic livestock production;
• responding to member country requests for training on policy and market issues related to the livestock sector, both within the Umbrella Training Programme on meat policies and individual requests on developing school milk programmes;
• providing technical support to the organisation of symposia and conferences by national and international partners on topics of interest to member countries; specifically support has been provide to an international conference on the assessing the impact of Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture on the dairy sector, to two world milk producers round table meetings (Canada, 1999, and Belgium, 2001), to nine international and three national conferences on the assessing importance of the provision of milk to school-aged children, to the 48^th International Congress of Meat Science and Technology, which is being held during concurrently with the 19^th Session of the IGG on Meat and Dairy Products;
• undertaking project development work on meat issues which has gained considerable importance in the past decade, as evidenced in the CFC-related project activities reported in CCP document ME02/7. The mandate of this activity, at the request of the CCP, has been broadened to include dairy projects.

3. The longer term focus of the Group is to build on the activities mentioned above, taking into account matters of particular interest to the IGG. Specific priorities to be undertaken over the next biennium, within the Programme for Work and Budget resources made available for work on meat and dairy products, include:

• improved reporting on factors affecting global meat and dairy sectors, with a particular emphasis on price and policy (both domestic and international) developments and their impact on trade flows and food security of vulnerable developing countries;
• expansion and integration of meat and dairy databases with those of cereals, oilseeds, oils and meals, roots, tubers and pulses and their eventual incorporation into the new FAOSTAT system currently under development;
• increased collaboration with external institutions, including the OECD and UNCTAD, on medium term projections and policy analyses for basic food commodities;
• development of new web-based tools and information databases to facilitate the analysis of emerging issues related to international trade in meat and dairy products, including applications of biotechnology and implications for trade and food security; the linkages between environment, competitiveness, and trade;
• enhanced collaboration with international commodity institutions in order to benefit from existing synergies and comparative advantages through holding self-financing commodity related conferences and symposia, in conjunction, for example, with such bodies as the IDF, IFAP and meat industry groups;
• in addition to cross-cutting collaboration with outside institutions to benefit from comparative advantages each enjoy, a similar type of co-operation is being developed with other Divisions and Departments in FAO itself. Linkages with AGA have been developed to examine issues related to livestock, poverty alleviation, and trade, well in line with FAO's strategic framework to deploy expertise and resources more effectively. In addition, linkages are being developed with ESN and the Codex Alimentarius Commission with the goal of enhancing ESCB's ability to assess the impact of the food safety issues and the harmonisation of food safety standards on international trade in livestock products.