Medium-term prospects for agricultural commodities

Alexander Sarris

FAO regularly undertakes projections of production, demand and trade for all major agricultural commodities and for practically all countries in the world, as a basis for medium-term commodity policy analysis and for assessing future food security problems. These projections are important input for FAO's commodity outlook work in general, for global perspective studies, and as background for policy consultations on individual commodities. The projections are used by national planning agencies, international research institutions, project missions and other organizations and enterprises requiring a world frame of reference for national agricultural commodity policy and investment strategies. The unique feature of the FAO projections is to provide details of production, consumption and trade for individual commodities and countries that are generally not available elsewhere.