77th Session of the Committee on Commodity Problems (CCP) Opening Statement

Your Excellency the Chair of CCP,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Colleagues, 

We meet at a time of continued uncertainty for global agrifood systems.

While international food commodity markets have remained broadly resilient, conflicts and geopolitical tensions, extreme weather events, economic pressures, and disruptions to transport and supply chains continue to threaten the availability, accessibility and affordability of agrifood inputs and outputs.

These challenges do not affect all countries, producers, and consumers equally. Low-income and food-import-dependent countries, smallholder farmers, and vulnerable consumers are often the most affected, as they have the least capacity to face shocks.

Recent editions of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) show that progress towards ending hunger and food insecurity remains slow and uneven across regions; with disparities within countries.

Food insecurity is higher in rural than in urban areas in most countries, while women continue to be more affected than men, reflecting inequalities in access to resources, markets, services, and new opportunities.

These findings send a clear message: we must act urgently to build more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable agrifood systems.

Transparent and well-functioning international markets are essential to transform global agrifood systems. By connecting producers and consumers across countries and continents, they help diversify sources of supply, address localized production shortfalls, and ensure food availability. In this regard, the work of the CCP is fundamental.

Your recommendations provide important guidance on how commodity markets can function more effectively in support of global food security.

Promoting market transparency has become a basic element of FAO’s work and is widely valued by the international community.

Through market monitoring, commodity analysis, and early warning, FAO provides timely and impartial information on production, consumption, stocks, trade, prices and policy developments,

Helping governments and market participants understand trends, reduce uncertainty, and make informed decisions.

The G20 Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS), hosted by FAO, the Global Information and Early Warning System, the Food Price Monitoring and Analysis Tool, and the FAO Food Price Index, among others, are instruments supporting transparency and informed decision-making, especially during times of crisis.

FAO will continue to work with all Members and partners to strengthen market information systems and improve the quality, completeness, and timeliness of data and knowledge products.

International trade can increase the availability and diversity of food, create income and employment opportunities, and improve comparable and competitive advantages.

Between 2000 and 2024, food and agricultural trade rose from USD 400 billion to nearly USD 2 trillion.

Open, transparent and rules-based agricultural trade is essential for food security, yet many developing countries face constraints that limit their ability to participate effectively in international trade and benefit from it.

FAO supports Members in addressing these constraints through an integrated approach, and international standards are fundamental to this approach.

Science-based and internationally agreed standards protect human, animal, and plant health, while facilitating trade by providing a common technical basis for market access and strengthening confidence among consumers and trading partners.

Through the Codex Alimentarius Commission and the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), FAO supports Members in developing, implementing, and benefiting from such standards.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The 2026 edition of the FAO flagship report The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets focuses on trade, resilience and food security, in the context of FAO’s programme of work in commodity markets and trade under the umbrella of the FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31.

For more than seven decades, the CCP has provided a unique intergovernmental forum for dialogue on agricultural commodity markets and trade.

Your work remains highly relevant in an interconnected and uncertain world, in which no country can address global market challenges alone.

Together, we can achieve FAO’s vision of the Four Betters; better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life - leaving no one behind.

I wish you a fruitful session and progress on CCP (Problems and Prosperity).

Thank you.