71st Session of the United Nations General Assembly 2nd Committee – Agenda Item 17
21/10/2016
71st Session of the United Nations General Assembly
2nd Committee – Agenda Item 17
Statement by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Delivered by the Director of the FAO Liaison Office to the UN, Carla Mucavi
21 October 2016, United Nations
Mr. Chairman,
Thank you for giving me the floor.
The relationship between international trade, food security and sustainable development is stronger and more important than ever.
Food security is a priority of the 2030 Agenda, enshrined in SDG2. And trade is seen as an enabler of sustainable development, including in SDG2.
The linkages between commodity prices and sustainable agricultural development were discussed earlier this month at the annual meeting with Ministers of Trade and Agriculture organized by FAO since 2012.
Ministers and senior-level policy makers discussed the implications of long-term declining agricultural prices and periodic price surges and the measures needed to realise the SDGs.
As noted by the FAO Director-General, policy makers are confronted by the challenge of keeping nutritious food affordable for the poor, while ensuring incentives for producers, including family farmers.
Agricultural trade can help ensure the availability of food and contribute to price stability, covering local shortfalls and smoothing out price swings.
Food price spikes, however, make buying food more expensive for low income food deficit countries and for poor consumers. Many times, this forces them to settle for cheaper food alternatives, high in calorie and fat and low in nutritional content.
On the other hand, higher prices can present an opportunity for family farmers. However, recent experience shows that they do not always have the capacity to quickly increase production and respond to the price stimulus. We need to build this capacity.
Mr Chair,
International food prices have fallen since their peak in 2011, but they are expected to remain higher than the levels registered until 2005, according to a joint OECD and FAO 10-year outlook report released in July.
Geopolitical and climate-related weather uncertainties are also likely to exacerbate the episodes of food price spikes in the future, with potential disruptions to trade flows.
Increased coordination of policy responses and enhanced market transparency will be important to weather these turbulences.
Trade also has the potential to help ensure that global markets remain a reliable source of food, especially for low-income food-deficit countries.
However, if not well managed, increased openness to trade combined with the current long-term downward trend of food prices can undermine local production and consequently the livelihoods of the rural poor.
In this context, FAO would like to underline the importance of supporting family farming and of having a rules-based multilateral trade that is non-distorted, non-discriminatory and fair for achieving global food security and sustainable agricultural development
In this regard, FAO welcomed the outcomes of the Nairobi WTO Ministerial Conference, which included the decision to eliminate agricultural export subsidies and gave trade policy space for developing countries to explore ways to strengthen national food security.
It was a step forward in the direction of a global trade framework that can balance the pursuit of their national food security and development objectives without harming trading partners.
Mr Chair,
Let me conclude by reiterating FAO’s commitment to support countries in their efforts towards the achievement of the SDGs, while leaving no one behind.
Thank you for your attention.