FAO flagship reports 2024 – Russian premiere

On 19 December, the FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation and the Central Scientific Agricultural Library (CSAL), FAO Depository Library in Russia, presented FAO flagship publications 2024 in Russian.

The five outstanding studies of FAO analysts comprise the following reports: The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI); The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA); The State of the World’s Forests (SOFO); The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA); The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets (SOCO).

Lidia Pirumova, Deputy Director for Science at CSAL, welcomed the audience numbering over 100 experts (in person and online).

“FAO defines itself as a knowledge organization, and today the demand for information products related to industrial agriculture and its segments – agriculture, forestry, fisheries, rural economic development, food security and food safety – is growing exponentially,” Oleg Kobiakov, Director of the FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation, highlighted while opening the forum.

“A single universal methodology for a global integrated food security index has not been developed. Many international and national organizations use different indicators to assess food security, but rarely integrate them into one overall index,” Natalia Shagaida, Director of the Centre of Agrifood Policy at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, noted when commenting on The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI 2024) of FAO.

“Integrated assessments with the use of various methodologies and approaches are carried out by The Economist Impact with the Global Food Security Index (annually across 113 countries), Deep Knowledge Group with the Food Security Index (171 countries in 2022), and the International Food Policy Research Institute with the Hunger Index (annually across 136 countries),” Natalia Shagaida said.

The expert emphasized that when developing approaches to calculate the integrated food security index in the Russian Federation, “individual indicators” were considered. In the Food Availability and Food System Sustainability section, Russian researchers take into account the following indicators: sufficiency of production, the index of physical volume of food retail trade turnover, the index of physical volume of investments in fixed assets in agriculture, the level of production concentration, and the index of greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture.

When assessing the “physical accessibility of food”, such parameters as the share of rural settlements connected to the public road network by paved roads and the share of the population living in sparsely populated rural settlements are also taken into account.

The Food Safety section summarizes data on the following criteria: the share of food samples not meeting sanitary and epidemiological requirements and hygienic standards, and the share of the population provided with high-quality potable water from centralized water supply systems.

“The Russian index, MSU integrated food security index, is a breakthrough. This is the first attempt to create such an index,” Natalia Shagaida highlighted. “Due to the fact that it is geared towards country comparisons, it cannot always be calculated at the regional level, and there is room for its improvement. The work on creating integrated indices for Russia and the regions will continue.”

“Aquatic animal food consumption per capita grew from 9.1 kg in 1961 to 20.7 kg in 2022. At the same time, the fishery industry supplied around 15% of animal protein for food, and in some countries in Asia and Africa this figure exceeded 50%,” Igor Shpakov, Consultant at the FAO Moscow Office, said when commenting on The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA 2024).“The fisheries and aquaculture sector is of particular importance for the global economy in terms of generating employment and income for the population. According to statistics, about 600 million people are employed in the primary and secondary sectors of the fishery industry and in subsistence fishery.”

According to the FAO expert, aquatic foods are one of the most in-demand food groups in the world: trade in them involves over 230 countries and territories and they account for 9.1% of total agricultural trade in the world.

Presenting The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA 2024), Ahmad Sadiddin, expert of the Agrifood Economics and Policy Division, FAO Headquarters, noted that the study assessed the scale of “hidden costs”, which “is the first step towards reducing them.”

Ahmad Sadiddin said that according to the calculations, in 2020, agrifood systems had lost around USD 12 trillion as hidden costs. “This highlights the urgent need to take these hidden costs into account in the decision-making process: while being hidden, these costs are very real.”

The most problematic hidden cost category is costs (70% of the total) related to unhealthy diets leading to an increased risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). “Diets low in whole grains and fruit and high in sodium pose risks.”  Diets low in whole grains account for 18% of quantified health hidden costs, followed by diets low in fruits (16%) and high in sodium (16%).

Ahmad Sadiddin emphasized, “These dietary patterns are classified as “unhealthy” and are the main causes of non-communicable diseases: cardiovascular diseases, cancer and diabetes. In addition to their health impact, these diseases impose an economic and social burden, reducing people’s productivity.

This trend can be reversed by increasing the consumption of whole plant-based foods: whole grains, fruits, vegetables and legumes, and healthy fats contained, for example, in nuts and seeds.”

Based on the findings of The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets (SOCO 2024), George Rapsomanikis, Senior Economist at the FAO Markets and Trade Division, analysed the trends related to the share of staple foods in the total energy available for human consumption taking into account GDP per capita (2020 data).

The FAO expert detailed that first, “there are changes happening in the types and quantities of foods consumed and the composition of diets. Second, the share of staple foods in energy available for consumption is decreasing but at the same time, the share of meat, oils and fats, fruits and vegetables, and processed foods is increasing. Third, the changes are driven by rising incomes, urbanization and lifestyle changes, as well as the further development of the modern industrial sector and the integration of countries into the global economy.”

The global food and agricultural trade almost quintupled from USD 400 billion in 2000 to USD 1.9 trillion in 2022. As George Rapsomanikis emphasized, “The global food trade adjusted for global population growth increased from 930 kcal per capita per day in 2000 to 1640 kcal in 2021.”

Aleksandr Chumak, Deputy Head of RusQuality, said that RusQuality was the executing or co-executing organization for 9 out of 16 items of the Roadmap for the development of organic production in Russia by 2030. Now the official normative definition of organic products has been established: these are environmentally sound agricultural products, raw materials and food, the production of which meets the requirements established by Federal Law 280-FZ.

Dmitry Bulatov, President of the National Union of Food Exporters, made a significant contribution to the discussion. During his “Development of Russian agrifood exports in the new economic context” presentation, he recalled that Russia adopted bans on the export of rice, sugar and rapeseed in 2024. The duties on the export of sunflower oil, soybeans and oilmeal were extended until 2026. Floating export duties on wheat, maize and barley remain in place (a “grain damper” mechanism was introduced in Russia from 2 June 2021).

Dmitry Bulatov highlighted, “Limiting sales opportunities has a negative impact on producers, forcing them to reduce production and change their areas of activity.”

In order to mitigate the consequences of the restrictions, the expert suggests moving to incentives, specifically “providing subsidies to domestic processors during such periods to purchase products from domestic agricultural producers at prices comparable to the global ones. As a result, it will help to maintain balance in the domestic market and prevent the unwanted outflow of products abroad.”

Professor Sergey Kiselev, Head of Agrarian Economics Department at the Faculty of Economics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, expressed his opinion about SOFA 2024. Drawing attention to the fact that the methodology of the conducted study was not clearly defined, Professor Kiselev emphasized that it would make sense to monitor and analyze not only hidden costs, but also hidden benefits. The expert also indicated the need to “conduct a point assessment of hidden costs at the national level and maybe even at the level of individual territories.”

Elena Smirnova, Head of the Demography and Epidemiology of Nutrition Laboratory at the Institution of Nutrition and Biotechnology, shared her remarks on the FAO flagship reports presented. “If we take a look at the actual consumption data, the share of protein in the diet of Russian residents has remained at the 12−14% level for quite a long time. It is good because it shows that there is no risk of deficiency.

At the same time, we observe a serious imbalance between fats and complex carbohydrates, which are supplanted by fats. Fats make up 38–40% of the Russian diet, while the standard for their consumption is no more than 30%. Our dietary energy intake is also too high.”

According to Elena Smirnova, there is also a problem in the middle-income population group. This category of our citizens “has already reached a certain level of income, but has maintained the same food culture. They can afford to buy almost anything but choose foods with the highest sugar and fat content. Thus, they need to be considered as the target audience for educational and awareness-raising programmes.”

BACKGROUND

“The State of the World” publication series includes FAO flagship reports. Published annually or biennially, these are data-rich and analytically meaningful publications providing a global snapshot of topics associated with food and agriculture. 

The series is aimed at facilitating the assessment of progress towards the goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It is targeted at policymakers, donors, international organizations, academia, and journalists and researchers specializing in food security, agrifood systems, the environment and international development.