Máximo Torero
Title: Chief Economist
Biography
Mr. Maximo Torero Cullen is the Chief Economist of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). He joined the Organization in January 2019 as Assistant Director-General for the Economic and Social Development Department. Prior to joining FAO, he was the World Bank Group Executive Director for Argentina, Bolivia, Chile Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay since November 2016 and before the Bank Mr. Torero led the Division of the Markets, Trade, and Institutions at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). His major research work lies mostly in analyzing poverty, inequality, importance of geography and assets (private or public) in explaining poverty, and in policies oriented towards poverty alleviation based on the role played by infrastructure, institutions, and on how technological breakthroughs (or discontinuities) can improve the welfare of households and small farmers. His experience encompasses Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia.
Mr. Torero, a national of Peru, holds a Ph.D. and a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of the Pacific, Lima, Peru. He is a professor on leave at the University of the Pacific, Perú, and an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at University of Bonn, Germany, and has also published in top journals (QJE, Econometric Theory, AER-Applied Microeconomics, RSTAT, Labor Economics and many other top journals).
Mr. Torero has received in 2000 the Georg Foster Research Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, won the Award for Outstanding Research on Development given by the Global Development Network, twice, in 2000 and in 2002, and received the Chevalier de l'Ordre du Mérite Agricole in 2014.
For more information, visit: https://maximotorero.com/
Speeches/Writings
Boost Resilience Against the Coronavirus Recession. Here’s How.
04/06/2020
The coronavirus pandemic has been a crushing one-two punch to the global economy, delivering a dual shock to supply and demand in quick succession. It’s a serious threat to food...
Nature: Without Food, There Can Be No Exit from the Pandemic
23/04/2020
Countries must join forces to avert a global food crisis from COVID-19.
Foreign Policy: How to Stop a Looming Food Crisis
14/04/2020
Trade restrictions are breaking supply chains, and coronavirus lockdowns are preventing laborers from working on farms. Countries need to step back and stop panicking. (Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash)...
The Hill: If We Want to Save Earth, We Need to Change How We Eat
17/11/2019
Producing food, even on organic farms, and then not eating it only green-washes its truly ravaging effects on the planet.
In the media
Financial Times
29/11/2020
Speaking at the UN’s first International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste this September, Maximo Torero, chief economist at the FAO, noted that a hermetic bag is no...
EURACTIV
26/11/2020
The European Food Systems: The Transition Toward Sustainability and Climate Mitigation
Publico
08/06/2020
Máximo Torero: "That food is a business is not bad, what is bad is that it is speculated on"