Máximo Torero

Title: Chief Economist

Biography

As FAO’s chief economist, Dr. Torero leads the organization's economic analysis and policy work to build resilient, inclusive, and sustainable agrifood systems. He focuses on strengthening resilience to shocks, advancing innovative financing, improving access to healthy diets, and reinforcing supply chains. His work is grounded in decades of research on commodity prices, market volatility, and their impact on poverty and hunger.

He represents FAO in global processes related to the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Zero Hunger, and serves as the organization’s analytical voice at high-level forums, helping shape global dialogue on agrifood systems transformation. He served on the Munich Security Conference Food Security Task Force, linking food security with national security and geopolitical risk, and co-chaired the UN’s Global Crisis Response Group on the war in Ukraine, supporting the Black Sea Grain Initiative to reopen supply routes. He also provides intellectual leadership for FAO’s flagship public goods, including The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World.

Before joining FAO in 2019, Dr. Torero was executive director at the World Bank Group in Washington, D.C., representing Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. From 2006 to 2016, he led the Markets, Trade and Institutions Division at the International Food Policy Research Institute.

Dr. Torero has received numerous honors, including Chevalier dans l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole from the French government. His work has been cited by The Washington Post, CNN, BBC, The Economist, and The New York Times, and his opinion pieces have appeared in Foreign Policy, Project Syndicate, and the Los Angeles Times.

He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a B.A. from the University of the Pacific in Peru.

For more information, visit: https://maximotorero.com/.