This year’s Commodity Market Review (CMR), FAO’s annual publication on food and agricultural commodities and trade, introduces some innovations over earlier editions. The main focus of the CMR in the past was on a review of developments in commodity markets, describing the current situation and the short-term outlook. This new edition includes five analytical articles which look beyond the current situation and outlook to explain in more detail and explain some of the implications of factors which shape commodity market developments and topical policy issues. In this edition there are articles on long term trends in basic foodstuffs prices, the influence of oil prices on agricultural commodity prices, tariff peaks and tariff-cutting formulae, African food deficits and surpluses, and the impact of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture.
The situation and outlook of food and agricultural commodity markets is still here in Part II of the new publication, but in a slightly condensed form. Market reviews are presented for 19 food and agricultural commodities. Increasingly this material is being presented on the Commodities and Trade Division webpages on the FAO website at www.fao.org (under Economics, Commodities and Trade), which provide greater scope for timely dissemination of more detailed market information and more frequent updating than is possible with conventional printed publications. The webpages themselves are also undergoing some redesign to increase their content, but also to make them easier to access and to use.
Paola Fortucci
Director
Commodities and Trade Division
