Who Feeds the World?: Global Agricultural Trade Patterns

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview on the global food system and delves into understanding ‘who feeds the world?’ The chapter, first presents global trade patterns and trends at various levels. We then, devise five categories of countries according to their net agricultural and food trade position and income level. The chapter ends with an analysis of reasons behind recent changes in global trade of agricultural products. The chapter suggests that the share of agricultural trade in total merchandize trade has decreased significantly over the past 50 years, most severely in least developed countries. Further, the structure of global agricultural and food trade has also changed remarkably in the last 50 years. During this time, the initial surplus of developing countries became a massive deficit, and developed countries saw their net food importing position change to a food exporting one. At country level, results suggest that the United States has been the biggest exporter and importer of agricultural and food products over the past 25 years. At the product level, meat and cereals were the most traded product groups, with growth trends indicating trade of higher value added products in agriculture. We compare net agricultural and food trade positions with income levels, used as a proxy for overall wellbeing, to form five distinct country groups. Our results show that rich and emerging food exporters feed rich and low income food importers, and a considerable number of countries are self-sufficient.

Appendices

Appendices

4.1.1 Appendix 4.1: List of Countries Based on Their Agri-Food Trade and Income Positions

Rich net food exporter (RNFE)	Emerging net food exporter (ENFE)	Self-sufficient (SFS)	Rich net food importer (RNFI)	Low income net food importer (LINFI)
Argentina	Bolivia	Antigua and Barbuda	Albania	Afghanistan
Australia	Cote d’Ivoire	Aruba	Algeria	Armenia
Belgium	Ethiopia	Belarus	Andorra	Bangladesh
Brazil	Ghana	Belize	Austria	Benin
Bulgaria	Guatemala	Bermuda	Azerbaijan	Cambodia
Canada	Honduras	Bhutan	Bahamas, The	Cape Verde
Chile	India	Burkina Faso	Bahrain	Congo, Rep,
Colombia	Indonesia	Burundi	Barbados	Egypt, Arab Rep,
Costa Rica	Kenya	Cameroon	Bosnia and Herzegovina	El Salvador
Denmark	Malawi	Central African Republic	Botswana	Fm Sudan
Ecuador	Moldova	Chad	Brunei	Georgia
France	Nicaragua	Comoros	China	Kyrgyz Republic
Hungary	Sri Lanka	Djibouti	Croatia	Mauritania
Ireland	Tanzania	Dominica	Cuba	Morocco
Lithuania	Uganda	Eritrea	Cyprus	Nepal
Malaysia	Ukraine	Faeroe Islands	Czech Republic	Niger
Netherlands	Vietnam	Fiji	Dominican Republic	Nigeria
New Zealand	Zambia	Gambia, The	Estonia	Pakistan
Paraguay	Zimbabwe	Greenland	Finland	Philippines
Poland		Grenada	French Polynesia	Senegal
Serbia		Guinea	Gabon	Yemen
South Africa		Guinea-Bissau	Germany
Spain		Guyana	Greece
Thailand		Haiti	Hong Kong, China
Turkey		Iraq	Iceland
United States		Kiribati	Iran
Uruguay		Lesotho	Israel
		Madagascar	Italy
		Mali	Jamaica
		Mayotte	Japan
		Mongolia	Jordan
		Mozambique	Kazakhstan
		Myanmar	Korea, Rep,
		Namibia	Kuwait
		Palau	Latvia
		Papua New Guinea	Lebanon
		Rwanda	Libya
		Samoa	Luxembourg
		Sao Tome and Principe	Macao
		Seychelles	Macedonia, FYR
		Sierra Leone	Maldives
		Solomon Islands	Malta
		St, Kitts and Nevis	Mauritius
		St, Lucia	Mexico
		St, Vincent and the Grenadines	Montenegro
		Sudan	New Caledonia
		Suriname	Norway
		Swaziland	Oman
		Syrian Arab Republic	Panama
		Togo	Peru
		Tonga	Portugal
		Turkmenistan	Qatar
		Turks and Caicos Isl,	Romania
		Tuvalu	Russian Federation
		Vanuatu	Saudi Arabia
			Singapore
			Slovak Republic
			Slovenia
			Sweden
			Switzerland
			Trinidad and Tobago
			Tunisia
			United Arab Emirates
			United Kingdom
			Venezuela

1. Source: Own composition based on World Bank (2016) data
2. Note: Category criteria are as follows: RNFE = agri-food trade balance is more than $100 million & country pertains to the high or upper middle income categories. ENFE = agri-food trade balance is more than $100 million & country pertains to the low or lower middle income categories. SFS = agri-food trade balance is between −$100 million and +$100 million irrespective of income categories. RNFI = agri-food trade balance is less than – $100 million & country pertains to the high or upper middle income categories. LINFI = agri-food trade balance is less than -$100 million & country pertains to the low or lower middle income categories. All agri-food trade balances are based on 1991–2014 averages. Countries are in ABC order. None of the listing shows any priority among nations

4.1.2 Appendix 4.2: Product Groups Related to Agriculture and Food at the Harmonised System at Two Digit Level

Product group	Code
SECTION I: LIVE ANIMALS AND ANIMAL PRODUCTS
Live animals	1
Meat and edible meat offal	2
Fish and crustaceans, molluscs and other aquatic invertebrates	3
Dairy produce, birds’ eggs, natural honey, edible products of animal origin not elsewhere specified or included	4
Products of animal origin, not elsewhere specified or included	5
SECTION II: VEGETABLE PRODUCTS
Live trees and other plants, bulbs, roots and the like, cut flowers and ornamental foliage	6
Edible vegetables and certain roots and tubers	7
Edible fruit and nuts, peel of citrus or melons	8
Coffee, tea, mat and spices	9
Cereals	10
Products of the milling industry, malt, starches, inulin, wheat gluten	11
Oil seeds and oleaginous fruits, miscellaneous grains, seeds and fruit, industrial or medicinal plants, straw and fodder	12
Lac, gums, resins and other vegetable saps and extracts	13
Vegetable plaiting materials, vegetable products not elsewhere specified or included	14
SECTION III: ANIMAL OR VEGETABLE FATS AND OILS AND THEIR CLEAVAGE PRODUCTS; PREPARED EDIBLE FATS;ANIMAL OR VEGETABLE WAXES
Animal or vegetable fats and oils and their cleavage products, prepared edible fats, animal or vegetable waxes	15
SECTION IV: PREPARED FOODSTUFFS; BEVERAGES, SPIRITS AND VINEGAR; TOBACCO AND MANUFACTURED TOBACCO SUBSTITUTES
Preparations of meat, of fish or of crustaceans, molluscs or other aquatic invertebrates	16
Sugar and sugar confectionery	17
Cocoa and cocoa preparations	18
Preparations of cereals, flour, starch or milk, pastrycooks’ products	19
Preparations of vegetables, fruit, nuts or other parts of plants	20
Miscellaneous edible preparations	21
Beverages, spirits and vinegar	22
Residues and waste from food industries, prepared animal fodder	23
Tobacco and manufactured tobacco substitutes	24

1. Source: Own composition based on COMTRADE (2016)