Summary
The conference, co-sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme, the Common Fund for Commodities, the Africa, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States and UNCTAD, drew international attention to the need for fairer profits for farmers.
At UNCTAD XII, the issue will be the focus of a roundtable debate.
|
Commodities - especially the growth and sale of basic farm produce, which is how some 2 billion people earn their living - are vital for global economic health and progress.
The news should be good. Demand for many agricultural products has risen, driven by growth in China, India, Brazil and other emerging economic giants. And prices at the supermarket have climbed to match. But in many cases the share paid to developing-country farmers has fallen as a consequence of increasing power on the buyers´ side (supermarkets) and higher demands made on suppliers.
An op-ed piece co-authored by UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi described this as an "it´s-not-fair situation." The authors went on to say that developing countries should be able to use the current boom in commodities prices to reap profits, raise living standards, and diversify their economies into manufacturing and other "higher-value-added" activities - just as nations in Europe and North America did 200 years ago during the Industrial Revolution. The article expressed concern that this opportunity should be seized before prices fall again... as they always have in the notoriously cyclical commodities sector.