FAO Director-General meets European Union Agriculture Commissioner Wojciechowski

During his visit in Poland, to participate in the 33rd Regional Conference for Europe, FAO Director-General QU Dongyu today held discussions with European Union Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski.

The main focus of their meeting included issues such as the rising food prices, availability of staple commodities, and the increase in the prices of fertilizers and fuel, exacerbated by the Ukraine crisis.

When presenting FAO’s steps to monitor impacts of the war in Ukraine, the Director-General  referred to the six information notes FAO has produced – available in a digital version – as well as the FAO Food Price Index, released at the beginning of each month.

As Qu highlighted, food security has been affected not only in Europe, since the Russian Federation and Ukraine are key suppliers for over 40 vulnerable countries across the globe. Thus, he encouraged European Union countries to undertake coherent action in the next months to support Ukraine’s agrifood system.

The Director-General drew the attention of the EU Commissioner on the still low level of response to FAO’s Rapid Response Plan (RRP) launched as part of UN Consolidated Humanitarian appeal for 2022 to support Ukraine’s food and agriculture for which only $11 million dollars so far have been received against urgent needs estimated at $115.4 million (10 percent funded only). The emergency plan prepared with and fully aligned to the Ukranian Ministry of Agriculture’s priorities aims to:

- Maintain critical production systems – delivering inputs and cash+ interventions to support vegetable, potato, cereal (wheat and oilseed) and livestock production.
- Support agrifood supply chains, value chains and markets (collaborating with the Government, agribusiness, farmers and associations), including through urgently needed strengthening of quarantine and phytosanitary laboratory capacities to facilitate temporary alternative export of food commodities to access sea through Poland and Romania.
- Ensure accurate analyses of the evolving food security conditions and needs, including through coordination of the Food Security and Livelihoods Cluster.

Commissioner Wojciechowski touched upon the challenges to ensure the continuation of trade flows of staple grains from Ukraine, specifically wheat, sunflower and soybeans.

Qu also mentioned the need to strengthen the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS), as well as the potential in reducing food loss and waste to ease pressure on agrifood systems.

The meeting took place after the inauguration of the Regional Conference for Europe. In his welcome address, Qu emphasized that this hybrid Regional Conference is an excellent example of how we can address the challenges we face with “joint determination, blending traditional approaches and know-how with modern technological advances.”

“This reflects FAO’s vision of the transformation of agrifood systems, built on proven approaches, and merging them with innovative and digital solutions to increase efficiency, inclusiveness, resilience and sustainability,” the FAO Director-General noted.

The inauguration of the conference was attended by over 100 delegates and observers from across the region and beyond, with more than 50 high-level representatives of FAO Members.