FAO Assistant Director-General Vladimir Rakhmanin attends the EAEU Agro-Industrial Policy Council working meeting

19 May 2020, Budapest/Moscow -  FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Europe and Central Asia Vladimir Rakhmanin spoke yesterday at the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) Agro-Industrial Council working meeting dedicated to COVID-19 impact response measures in the agrifood sector. The meeting was held over video conference.

Council members included Ministers for Agriculture of the EAEU Member States, as well as members of the Eurasian Economic Council (EEC) Board, whose responsibilities include industry and agribusiness, technical regulation, sanitary, animal health, and quarantine phytosanitary measures.

Ministers shared measures undertaken in EAEU Member States aimed at overcoming the negative impact of the pandemic in the agrifood sector.

Vladimir Rakhmanin informed the meeting participants about the steps undertaken by FAO at global and regional levels to combat the COVID-19 impact. He highlighted that, according to the assessments and estimates of the Organization, unlike the global food crisis of 2007-2008, there are at present no signs of food deficit on the world markets.

“To the contrary, some decline in global demand is evident, which has resulted in a decrease in food prices,” noted the Assistant Director-General. “From the beginning of 2020, under the influence of the pandemic, FAO’s Combined Food Price Index has been dropping,” he elaborated.

At the same time, in many countries in the region there has been an increase of food retail prices due to, among others, the increase of transportation costs. FAO believes that ensuring the continued undisrupted functioning of agrifood value chains represents an important condition for keeping food prices stable in both internal and external markets.

Rakhmanin highlighted that the protracted crisis caused by the pandemic increases the burden on food systems, processing, logistics, and retail, complicating access to agricultural inputs. Delivery of perishable foodstuffs, on the other hand, suffers from logistical barriers.

Considering the above-mentioned challenges and in order to strengthen food security in EAEU Member States, as well as to extend the Union’s contribution to the strengthening of global food security, Vladimir Rakhmanin proposed to the participating ministers to boost cooperation in the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding between FAO and the EEC, signed in 2013, as well as the Action Plan on its implementation. 

For reference:

The Agro-Industrial Policy Council of the Eurasian Economic Union (Member-States include Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia), represented by Ministers for Agriculture of the Member States, contributes to the enhancement of integration among EAEU countries in the agro-industrial sector and ensures cooperation for coherent agro-industrial policies implementation and elaboration of proposals for the Union’s agro-industrial complex and agricultural market development strategies.

As part of its COVID-19 response, FAO’s priorities are: (1) support developing countries to anticipate and mitigate the pandemic’s impacts on their populations’ food security and livelihoods; (2) contribute to discussions on mitigating COVID-19’s impacts on global food trade and markets; and (3) support countries and research institutions in ongoing investigations to identify potential animal hosts of the virus and reduce spillover effects to humans