FAO’s forecasts for global cereal production, consumption, trade and stocks in 2013/14 have all been raised since February, with overall supply conditions significantly improved compared to the previous season. Export prices of wheat rose in February mainly on concerns about the 2014 winter wheat crop in the United States. Prices of maize also increased, supported by strong domestic and export demand for feed and industrial use. Overall, however, cereal export...

In 2013, despite the impact of floods and insecurity in some areas, generally favourable rains and absence of major outbreaks of pests and diseases favoured cereal crop production in the traditional farming sector of South Sudan. • Accordingly, total cereal harvested area in the traditional sector increased by about 2.8 percent resulting in an estimated net cereal production of about 892 000 tonnes, about 13 percent above the revised 2012...

The FAO/GIEWS Country Cereal Balance System (CCBS) is a database of annual supply and utilization balances for main cereals, covering all countries of the world. It has been maintained by FAO/GIEWS since 1980 and is updated on a continual basis. This statistical report, which is a subset of CCBS data, presents the current-year cereal supply and demand balances for all sub-Saharan African countries, highlighting cereal import and food aid requirements...

There has been a recent proliferation of simulation modelling exercises attempting to quantify the potential economic gains from further liberalization of agricultural trade, and in doing so, seeking to inform the current Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations. This paper seeks to contribute to a better appreciation of what the results of simulation models actually mean, and the extent to which they can be used to inform debates...

With the disintegration of the Soviet Union 15 new countries entered the world stage. The CIS countries are very different in size, economic structure and agricultural profile. The same is true even for the smaller group of seven CIS countries that are members of the World Trade Organization (WTO). By late 2013 seven of the twelve non-Baltic ex-Soviet countries had acceded to the WTO: Armenia, Georgia, the Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova,...

With the 2014 season fairly advanced, firmer crop estimates have been issued, which have resulted overall in a slight increase of 250 000 tonnes in the global paddy production forecast. At country level, prospects for the 2014 season output have improved since the October release of this report, particularly for China, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Nigeria, and Viet Nam. The higher figures more than compensated for a downgrading in...

This report is issued on an annual basis to Members and Observers of the Sub-Group on Bananas of the Intergovernmental Group on Bananas and Tropical Fruits. It is prepared by the Market and Policy Analyses of Raw Materials, Horticulture and Tropical (RAMHOT) Products Team, Trade and Market Division, FAO, Rome, and the tables contained bring together the information available to FAO, supplemented by data obtained from other sources in particular...

Multinational trading companies, and in particular the three largest banana traders (Chiquita, Dole and del Monte), have historically played a major role in the international banana trade, exerting substantial market power in particular on the purchasing side. These vertically integrated multinational firms engage in production, purchase, transport, and marketing of bananas. They own fleet and ripening facilities, and have their own distribution networks in the importing countries, creating im portant...