FAO and Ukraine improve market transparency
FAO’s Investment Centre and the Ministry of Agricultural Policy and Food of Ukraine jointly presented improved market indicators at a meeting of G-20’s Agricultural Market Information System in Paris, April 2013
TCI established a successful partnership with Ukraine’s Ministry of Agricultural Policy and Food of Ukraine (MAPFU) under the FAO-EBRD Project on Reinforcing the Public Private Dialogue in the Ukrainian Grain Sector in order to unlock the sector’s potential through investment along the grain supply chain. One of the project’s goals is to improve transparency of key market data indicators to allow informed decision-making by both the private sector and government officials.
On 23-24 April 2013, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) hosted the 3rd meeting of the Global Food Market Information Group under the G-20’s Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) in Paris, France. The meeting, which followed the 1st and 2nd Global Food Market Information Group meetings in February and October 2012, brought together AMIS participating member countries as well as the international organizations that form AMIS Secretariat to discuss countries’ experiences in establishing supply and demand balances, progress achieved in the monitoring of market and policy indicator drivers as well as review different options to improve crop forecasting building on best practices in remote sensing.
Mr. Dmitry Prikhodko, Economist from FAO Investment Centre division, delivered a joint presentation with Mr. Yaroslav Cherevychny, Chief of the Agricultural Markets’ Monitoring and Perspectives Unit, Agricultural Markets and Economic Development Department, MAPFU, on Transparency of the Ukrainian Grain Balance to share background information on specific market indicators in Ukraine and to illustrate the technical assistance provided to an AMIS country in partnership with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), in particular the automated system for grain supply and demand balance preparation created by the project.
The presentation was well received by AMIS member countries with some calling it “an eye opener” and an “example to follow”. Mr. Abdolreza Abbassian, Senior Economist in FAO’s Trade and Markets Division (EST) and AMIS Secretary, noted that cooperation with TCI “could contribute greatly to the core work of AMIS, in particular with respect to capacity development at the country level”. As a follow up to this meeting, the Investment Centre Division will explore opportunities to extend this positive experience to other countries, in particular Kazakhstan as collaborative effort of EST, TCI, EBRD and Ministry of Agriculture of Kazakhstan.
For more information on AMIS, please visit: http://www.amis-outlook.org/home/en/
For more information the automated system for grain supply and demand balance preparation in Ukraine visit: www.grainbalance.org.ua