The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2024

International trade of food and agricultural products has grown robustly in recent decades and makes very significant contributions to food and nutrient diversity, availability and affordability around the world, the report The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets (SOCO): Trade and Nutrition: Policy Coherence for Healthy Diets, published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in November 2024, shows.

At the same time, trade can, in some contexts, be an accelerator of unwelcome changes in dietary patterns, boosting consumption of foods with low nutritional value, and high in fats, sugar and/or salt. This highlights the need to develop trade policies that are coherent with national nutrition and public health objectives, according to the report.

It notes that links between trade and nutrition are intricate and heterogeneous, and warrant closer attention. As incomes rise, a welcome effect of development, import demand for ultra-processed foods rises even faster, underscoring the utility of enabling policy-makers to consider the role of nutrition.

On average, international trade doubles the diversity of foods available in a country, catalysing more diverse food supply and diets which are a net plus for nutrition goals, especially in countries with less diverse geographies such as Kiribati or Norway. Dietary diversity is key for the adequacy of micronutrient supply.

Trade-driven diversity also leads to a more equal distribution of nutrients such as vitamin C, calcium and zinc, which is crucial, given that the domestic food production of many countries does not meet the nutrient requirements of their populations. SOCO 2024 presents ample data on how global flows of critical nutrients fill such gaps.

Food prices tend to be lower in countries that are open to trade. This finding applies across the board, including staples, fresh foods and processed foods.

Although food trade is a cornerstone of food security, in some contexts it may produce unwanted effects, in particular obesity, a subject that SOCO 2024 investigates in depth. The world-wide prevalence of undernourishment, FAO’s anchor metric for hunger, declined to 9.2 per cent in 2022 from 12.7 per cent in 2000. Over that period, the global prevalence of obesity in the adult population increased from 8.7 per cent to 15.8 per cent.

Trade has increased in all food categories, and at all processing levels, since 2000. Staple foods account for the largest share of calories traded, but their share is declining, while those of fats and oils, pulses, seeds and nuts, and animal-source foods is rising.

(FAO/ile)

Read more and download the report on the FAO website