Ministers meet at FAO to reconsider commodity markets governance

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) stressed the governments' need to reconsider the governance of agricultural commodity markets amid the fluctuating prices of food.
FAO Director General Jose Graziano da Silva told ministers attending a meeting on commodity markets governance on Monday that commodity markets caught global attention due to volatile food prices in the past five years.
He added that governments should review the way international agricultural commodity markets are governed.
In his opening remarks at FAO's third ministerial meeting on international agricultural commodity market governance, da Silva said enormous changes since then, in production and distribution, have had far-reaching effects not only for how international commodity markets work but also for food security, property rights and access to productive resources, and the positions of smallholder commodity producers.
He added indeed, a new element in international governance, the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS), had to be created in response to those price spikes, to improve information, enhance market transparency and to promote policy coordination.
Da Silva noted that reasons of the decrease in commodities prices are embodied in markets institutions largely forged in the 1970s.
He stated that FAO had an initiative of establishing inclusive "multi-stakeholder fora" by involving all stakeholders at commodity markets, including governments, private sector, producers, traders, consumers and non-governmental organizations.
For his part, Lassaad Lachaal, Minister for Agriculture of Tunisia and chairman of the ministerial meeting, said there were "insufficiencies" today in amassing reliable and up-to-date information on commodity stock levels.
He said it is needed to establish a stronger institutional scheme to promote policy coordination.
He added that issues relating to governance are gaining increasing attention, especially in light of the post-2015 Development Agenda.
The meeting included ministers from Tunisia, Lebanon, Sudan, Burkina Faso, Central African Repubilc, Georgia, Haiti, Malawi, Mauritania, Portugal, South Africa, Tonga, Ukraine, Tanzania and Zambia.
Other countries sent vice ministers or senior officials, including Italy, Japan, Britain and the US.
The meeting is being held a day before the Committee on Commodity Problems (CCP) will meet from Tuesday until Thursday.
The CCP is a FAO technical committee with more than 100 members set up in 1946 to survey and review international aspects of commodity production, trade and distribution.