On 4 October 2016, Hurricane Matthew, a Category 4 event with sustained winds of 230 km/h, made landfall in southwestern Haiti, with impact also on parts of Cuba, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas. Haiti was by far the most affected country. Early reports point to 473 confirmed deaths, with some unconfirmed reports putting this number at more than 1 000, and severe damage to at least 1 855 homes....

Wheat and maize export quotations generally declined in September, remaining at multi-year lows on account of ample world supplies and expectations of bumper crops. Rice prices also declined on account of improved prospects for global supplies and weak demand for imports. In Africa, food prices continued to soar in Nigeria driven by the continuous sharp depreciation of the local currency and insecurity in some areas. In South Sudan, cereal prices...

From a global perspective, food markets are expected to remain generally well balanced in 2016/17 amid large export availabilities and relatively low and more stable international prices, especially for cereals. The world food import bill is set to dip to a six-year low, while still remaining above the USD 1 trillion mark.

The document is based on the publication “Review of Agricultural Trade Policies in post-Soviet countries 2014-15”. In the 2013-2014 period, most countries in the region registered a negative foreign trade balance in agrifood products (HS codes 1-24). The largest deficit in this product category was recorded in the Russian Federation, which had an average annual deficit over the two years of USD 23.9 billion. A positive foreign trade balance was...

Tea is the most used beverage second to water in the world. Presently, the climate change triggered by global warming is posing a major threat to the resilience of agricultural systems including tea cultivation. Increasing temperatures, changes to rainfall amount and distribution, coupled with major shifts in other meteorological parameters in comparison with long term observations have further complicated the production process. This compilation of adaptation strategies for tea cultivation...

FAO often undertakes projections of production, demand, and trade for all major agricultural commodities as a basis for medium-term commodity analysis. These projections are an important input for FAO’s commodity outlook work, for global perspective studies and as background for policy consultations on individual commodities. Outside FAO, these projections are used by national planning agencies, international research institutions and other national and international organizations requiring a ba se reference for...

The twelfth joint edition of the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook provides market projections to 2025 for major agricultural commodities, biofuels and fish. The 2016 report contains a special feature on the prospects for, and challenges facing, Sub-Saharan Africa. Over the ten year Outlook period slowing demand growth will be matched by efficiency gains in production, implying relatively flat real agricultural prices. However, market and policy uncertainties imply a risk of resurgent volatility....

Prospects for global cereal production in 2016 continued to improve in recent months with significant upward revisions for maize and wheat, reflecting particularly favourable weather conditions in some of the large producing countries. Countries in need of external assistance: FAO estimates that 36 countries, including 28 in Africa, are in need of external assistance for food. Persisting conflicts and drought induced production declines are the main causes that have stressed...