The Rice Tariffication Law was signed last year to tackle the shortage of local rice in the Philippines; however, it allowed cheaper rice imports to flood into the country, thus hitting the selling price of local rice farmers. Traders still prefer importing rice rather than purchasing local supplies, forcing Filipino farmers to sell their land in order to repay their debts, or to convert their lands into plantations.

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During the first 7 months of 2020, the United Kingdom’s spirits exports have totalled GBP 2.3 billion, which represents a 28% decrease year-on-year. Exports started dropping when the first coronavirus lockdown measures were imposed by governments around the world in March, but there are other factors behind the decrease, such as the re-emerging of tariffs, the imminent end of the Brexit transition period, and the shutdowns in the hospitality industry.

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Many residents of Pakistan’s Bajaur tribal district have recently protested against the unavailability of subsidised flour by blocking the Khar-Peshawar Highway for hours. In fact, after the wheat crisis emerged in the country, the district administration allocated about 300 bags of subsidised flour a day, but during the last few days the supply of these bags was suspended.

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Over the last 20 years, average orange prices have progressively increased, and they have recently reached their highest point since 2000. More in particular, the market has seen a steady increase since April, with Chile taking the lead in the last couple of weeks (selling oranges at USD 1.86 per kilo). The factors contributing to such increase in prices could be various, but the laws of supply and demand may have had the biggest influence.

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According to the Uganda Coffee Development Authority, global coffee prices may increase soon due to La Niña’s effects on Brazil’s next crop. Uganda is one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of coffee, and it could take advantage of the future unfavourable weather conditions in Brazil, thanks to the implementation of its coffee roadmap, which aims at increasing coffee exports to 20 million 60 kg bags in 2025 by enhancing the supply of seedlings to farmers.

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The risk of famine is great for hundreds of thousands of people in southern Madagascar. That’s why the Kéré Foundation has recently announced the implementation of a project that will draw funds from a local television channel and a daily newspaper from Réunion (the overseas region of France located east of Madagascar). The initiative aims at using the funds to donate flour, grains and legumes, and to rehabilitate and supply with water the cisterns that were built by the same foundation in 2007.

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Despite the growth of the global market for queen conch (a shellfish exported by the Caribbean countries), the small-scale coastal producers in the eastern Caribbean are not fully benefitting from the new range of opportunities that this growth entails. This is why UNCTAD, the OECS and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) have launched the Blue BioTrade project, which plans to enhance the sustainable production of queen conch in Grenada, Saint Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

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Ghana’s government has recently commissioned a 1000 tons warehouse in the Ashanti Region, which will be one of the 80 warehouses that are being built across the country under the One District One Warehouse program. The warehouses are designed to support the local agro-processing factories by storing the food they produce and reduce post-harvest losses.

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According to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Policy Support Unit’s new policy report, the member states’ economies are already facing challenges related to the achievement of food security, due to the shifts in consumer demand and to the growing population; on top of this, the coronavirus pandemic is adding pressure to food security in the region. Therefore, the report encourages the member countries to keep the food trade open and streamline the customs clearance of food products.

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Unlike many other West African countries, Liberia is not known as a traditional producer of cocoa beans. However, up to 40,000 smallholder farmers in the country produce cocoa and rely on this crop for income and food security. A lack of a proper market access and a gap in production skills hampers the quality of the cocoa beans produced in the country, which are heavily discounted on the world market, thus limiting the possibilities for the sector to further develop in Liberia.

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