FAO and the Eurasian Economic Union: Collaboration goes one level up!

 

“Trends in the development of the agricultural sector and ensuring food security worldwide and in the region of Europe and Central Asia”. These were the problems addressed by Oleg Kobiakov, Director of the FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation, during his speech at one of the sessions of the II Eurasian Economic Forum, which took place on 24-25 May in Moscow.

Armen Harutyunyan, Director of the Department of Agro-Industrial Policy, Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), moderated the session.

“FAO and the EEC signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2013. We will celebrate its tenth anniversary in autumn. Tangibility is what defines our cooperation. They cover such important sectors as fruit growing, seed production, food industry, organic food market, GMO issues and many others,” Oleg Kobiakov, Head of the FAO Moscow Office, said in his speech. “The Memorandum of Cooperation will soon be extended for the next 5 years. We are working on a new Joint Action Plan that will reflect the increased competence, strength and potential of the Eurasian Economic Commission and the Eurasian Economic Union.”

“The world is now going through numerous crises caused by armed conflicts, the negative consequences of climate change and economic shocks,” Oleg Kobiakov continued. “The energy, financial, fiscal, and trading systems are currently unbalanced as never before in recent decades.

Seven years have passed since the world community committed itself to eliminating hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition, but the world as a whole and the region of Europe and Central Asia (ECA) are still far from achieving this goal by 2030.

At the global level, the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI), published in July 2022, estimates that the number of undernourished people in the world in 2021 raised to 828 million, an increase of 150 million since the COVID-19 pandemic began and of 46 million since 2020. Since 2015, the prevalence of undernourishment (PoU) has remained about the same at 8.0% in 2019, but it rose to 9.3% in 2020 and continued to rise in 2021, albeit at a lower rate, reaching 9.8%. 

In 2021, hunger continued to increase in most regions of Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, but at a slower pace than the previous year. The most significant increase compared to 2019, both in percentage terms and in the number of undernourished people, was seen in Africa. 

Finally, nearly 3.1 billion people worldwide could not afford a healthy diet in 2020, 112 million more than in 2019. 

In 2030, the world is projected to have almost 670 million undernourished people – 78 million more than in the no-pandemic scenario. 

In 2022, the food security and nutrition situation worldwide and in the ECA region was affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Both pandemic and military conflict result in higher food, input and energy prices; higher production, transport and transition costs; higher unemployment; lower incomes and higher costs of healthy diets. 

Estimates for 2021 show that the ECA region as a whole has a low prevalence of hunger and food insecurity compared to the global average. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there are 25.5 million more people who suffer from moderate or acute food insecurity in the region.

There has also been some progress on indicators such as reducing stunting in children, infant cachexia and low birth weight. However, an unfavourable trend of overweight children, obesity in adults and falling rates of exclusive breastfeeding persists in the region. In 2015-2017, almost 27% of children aged 6-9 years were overweight, the obesity rate among adults is growing in all subregions and in all countries of the ECA region.

Public support to the food and agriculture sector in the ECA region is increasing, particularly in middle-income countries, with beneficial effects on food availability, affordability, diversity and prices. 

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, many countries in the region set out to achieve self-sufficiency in agrifood products, which has led to the imposition of import and export restrictions. The current state of food security and nutrition in the ECA region requires the development of comprehensive regional and national programmes and projects aimed at improving the economic accessibility and environmental sustainability of agrifood systems. For these programmes to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs, they must cover agrifood systems, health, nutrition education, climate considerations, trade, investment, innovation, social protection and government support procedures. 

Dear colleagues!

Given the growing problem of hunger and domestic food price inflation in most countries of the world, collective action must be taken to address the urgent and longer-term challenges to global food security.

I would like to highlight five key actions that should be taken in this regard.

First, since trade remains key to ensuring global food security, all States must commit themselves to promoting the efficient functioning of markets and their transparency. In this regard, I would highlight the benefits provided by the G20 Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) operated by FAO.

Secondly, vulnerable countries need assistance to meet the needs for food and fertilizers. To this end, FAO has developed a Food Import Financing Facility (FIFF). FAO welcomes the introduction by the International Monetary Fund of an emergency financing instrument to address the food crisis, modelled on FAO's FIFF, but unfortunately too few countries have so far taken advantage of it.

Thirdly, appropriate investments are urgently needed to transform global agrifood systems and make them more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable. For this, priority should be given to a set of least-cost interventions that can achieve significant reductions in hunger and malnutrition with less environmental damage. FAO works to provide public goods by increasing the availability of soil maps and extension services and by promoting research and infrastructure improvements in rural areas.

Finally, the development of science and innovations as well as predicting future issues play a critical role in eliminating hunger. It is necessary to address the existing knowledge gaps.

FAO, as before, is determined and ready to support governments and attract additional allies to ensure policy coherence at the global, regional and national levels not to leave anyone behind.

We are ready for the further steps to strengthen our cooperation. We consider the Eurasian Economic Union as the most important FAO partner not only in the region, but also globally”, said Oleg Kobiakov in conclusion. “We are looking forward to further rapprochement of FAO and EAEU, deepening our cooperation with UNECE to hasten the day when the Eurasian Economic Union could implement the opportunity enshrined in the Charter and become a full-fledged member of our Organization.”

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“We conducted a study, during which it was found that there is a direct correlation between the income of agricultural producers and the efficiency of the agricultural machinery industry,” Artak Kamalyan, Member of the Board – Minister in charge of Industry and Agro-Industrial Complex, Eurasian Economic Commission, said in his speech, opening the discussion. “The key to the success of agricultural machine builders is not tax policy, not lending – although this is certainly important, but the ability of farmers to earn. When farmers make money, the agricultural machinery industry is doing well. And then everything is good from the point of view of food security.”

“In my opinion, there is a fundamental pathology in the common agrarian policy of our Eurasian Economic Union. Our agreement from 2014 creates the same conditions for all agricultural producers within our union. This is suitable when we produce, say, shoes. But when it comes to agricultural products, natural and climatic conditions play a significant role.

In the case of sugar beets, for example, Belarusian and Russian farmers apriori win, Kazakh, Armenian and Kyrgyz ones lose, because under any circumstances, with any technologies, will their beets have a similar sugar content and yield. At the same time, they will have advantages, say, in the production of vegetables and fruit.”

As soon as a force majeure situation develops, for example, the Covid pandemic, barriers are lowered. “And then there is a fundamental problem. Do our five countries have one food security or five of them?” Artak Kamalyan raised the topic of the day. “At the EEC level, we are coping with this challenge, we have adopted the mechanism of indicative plans, which assumes that, within certain limits, there are no restrictions on the transportation of certain agricultural products.”

“Another problem is logistics,” continued Artak Kamalyan. “Yes, we are provided with food – with the exception of fruit and berries – close to 100% and often even more. But if we go down to another level, it turns out that we import 90% of sugar beet seeds from third countries, mainly from Europe, as well as soybean, corn, and sunflower seeds. We import planting material, veterinary products, a significant part of plant protection products.” There is also dependence on imported spare parts for foreign combine harvesters, Artak Kamalyan said, adding that there is not a single sugar beet combine harvester produced in the EAEU countries.

“I think that integration and cooperation between our countries makes it possible to solve these problems more effectively,” said in conclusion the Member of the Board – Minister in charge of Industry and Agro-Industrial Complex, EEC.

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“Despite the difficult geopolitical situation, all EAEU countries are showing positive trends in terms of food security,” said in her speech Elena Fastova, Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation. “So, over the past three years, the index of physical volume (of agro-industrial complex products) in the EAEU countries amounted to almost 105%. Mutual trade grew by 34.8%. Exports are growing. All five countries of the Union in terms of basic products, such as grain, meat, milk, vegetables, exceed 100% in terms of self-sufficiency. According to forecasts, the increase in the gross production of the agro-industrial complex by 2025 will be plus 17%, and by 2030 – by more than 30%.”

We have learned how to produce and grow, how to use new technologies and benefit from the exchange of knowledge and skills, continued Elena Fastova. The EAEU countries expect that the ongoing efforts in the field of selection and seed production “will give impetus to development”.

“Since 2017, an agreement has been in force within the Union on the unhindered circulation of seeds,” Elena Fastova continued. “In 2021, a list of measures was approved aimed at unifying the legislation of the EAEU countries on testing seed varieties. In the near future, a unified register of plant varieties is expected to be formed. In March 2023, an agreement was signed on cooperation between breeders, seed growers regarding hybrids of sugar beet, sunflower and corn.

In the Russian Federation, there is a federal scientific and technical programme that has been implemented since 2017 and is aimed at selection in seed production of potatoes and sugar beets. To date, 38 new potato varieties and 31 sugar beet hybrids have been created. In addition, Elena Fastova noted that since 2022, seed production of oilseeds has begun to develop, and at the beginning of this year, the National Seed Consortium was created, which will combine the efforts of business and science in the field of selection and providing seeds to the agro-industrial complex.”

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The following speakers also addressed the session: Ivan Smilgin, Deputy Minister, Director of the Department of Veterinary and Food Supervision, Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Belarus; Svetlana Alekseeva, Deputy Head, Head of Digital Transformation, Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision (Rosselkhoznadzor); Viktor Nazarenko, Member of the Board – Minister in charge of Technical Regulation, Eurasian Economic Commission; Maxim Protasov, Head, Russian Quality System (Roskachestvo), Stefan Dürr, General Director, EkoNiva-APK Holding Management Company, and Yuri Katsnelson, President of the Russian Guild of Bakers and Confectioners.

BACKGROUND

The forum, entitled “The modern paradigm of the development of the agro-industrial complex: global challenges, emerging opportunities”, was held under the chairmanship of the Russian Federation in the bodies of the Eurasian Economic Union in 2023.

The purpose of the Forum is to improve cooperative ties within the Eurasian region. The main topics of the business part were issues of integration processes in the EAEU of high relevance and value for business. The forum was held under the motto “Eurasian Integration in a Multipolar World”. 

Over the past three years, the index of physical volume in the whole EAEU amounted to 104.7%, mutual trade increased by 34.8%, exports – by 41.7%. The foreign trade balance of agricultural products and food in 2021 reached positive values ​​(+$1.8 billion). 

In 2022, the level of provision with agricultural products and food in the Union amounted to 92.6%. The Member States fully satisfy the domestic demand for grain, pork, poultry meat, eggs and vegetable oils with their own production. All these changes have set qualitatively new tasks for the agro-industrial sector, including the import substitution of material and technical resources, the formation of optimal and efficient infrastructure and logistics solutions, the introduction of innovations and digitalization in the agro-industrial complex, and the sustainable development of agriculture.