Greater grain market transparency in Ukraine and Kazakhstan
Food markets are the topic of the day at Expo Milan
October marks the last month of Expo Milan 2015, a global six-month showcase focused on the theme “Feeding the planet, energy for life”. On 19 October, the Expo will host a session of the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) and put the spotlight on global food markets and policy coordination for wheat, maize, rice and soybeans. The Italian Minister of Agriculture will provide opening remarks for the session and international experts will present the latest commodity outlooks in AMIS countries.
AMIS is an initiative of the G20 that aims to improve agricultural market information through national and international analysis and forecasting. It brings together the major producers, consumers and exporters of the four basic food commodities to improve data collection capacity and promote dialogue and international policy coordination.
Contributors to AMIS include G20 countries plus Spain and seven additional major exporting and importing countries: Egypt, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, the Philippines, Thailand, Ukraine and Viet Nam. As the most recent member of AMIS, Ukraine has been sharing its grain balances with the group since October 2012 to improve the accuracy of global forecasts.
“Transparent commodity markets that attract investment are good for everyone. The EBRD and FAO have facilitated public-private dialogue in the Ukrainian grain market since 2011, and data transparency -- including for AMIS -- has been at the heart of this process,” remarked Dmitry Prikhodko, Economist at the Investment Centre Division. “This meeting at Expo Milan will show the international stage that Ukraine is open to dialogue and ready for business.”
“The Ukrainian government is interacting with the grain industry through a working group initially facilitated by FAO and EBRD to discuss grain market policies and regulatory issues,” said Vladyslava Rutytska, Deputy Minister for European Integration, Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine. “We believe that public-private dialogue, especially the regular meetings of the working groups and close monitoring of market developments, can serve as a good example of how to work together to bring trust and predictability.”
Starting this year, EBRD and FAO will also begin to support Kazakhstan’s participation in AMIS by providing training to responsible officials, to enhance the availability of grain market data in the country and support more investment. The Expo meeting will be a good occasion to initiate Kazakhstan’s active involvement in AMIS. The AMIS Secretary, Abdolreza Abbassian, is confident that Kazakhstan “will follow on Ukraine’s success to join the rank of top providers of timely and accurate market information.”
For more information, please see: http://www.amis-outlook.org/events/detail/en/c/327144/