Following the commodity price peaks of 2007-2008, countries faced new challenges as food prices surged to a historic peak in February 2011 and it became evident that commodity prices were in an upward trend.  Rising food prices threaten to increase poverty rates throughout the world, since the poor spend a greater portion of their family budgets on food.  According to a recent World Bank report, the food price rises of 2010-11 will significantly increase poverty in the Europe and Central Asia region in lower income countries (World Bank, Rising Food and Energy Prices in Europe and Central Asia, page 23-24; 2011).  There is thus a growing concern about the effects of rising food prices in the region.

In response to these developments, in March 2011 FAO kicked off a series of seminars designed to bring together interested development partners and to help governments make informed policy decisions to respond to the current rise in food prices. The two-day seminars are schedule at regional and subregional levels, starting in Asia and Africa.  These seminars provide policy decision-makers from relevant government ministries (agriculture, trade and finance) and others with the opportunity to exchange experiences from the 2008 food price crisis and to become better acquainted with the pros and cons of the various policy measures and programmatic actions at country level to address high food prices.  The seminars are implemented in coherence with the Comprehensive Framework for Action (CFA) prepared by the High Level Task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis. The  CFA is designed to encourage concerted responses to the food price crisis with actions that respond to the immediate needs of vulnerable populations and contribute to longer-term resilience (the twin track approach).
The consultation for Europe and Central Asia took place in Istanbul, Turkey from June 20 to June 22, 2011. Government representatives from nine countries from the region attended, including Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.  Representatives of international organizations such as the IMF and the World Bank attended, as well as bilateral donors, private sector representatives and civil society organizations.

The main purpose of the consultation was to give stakeholders in the region a chance to express views and discuss food commodity policies in a neutral international forum for which FAO played a supporting role by organizing the consultation, providing information and analysis on the issues of rising commodity prices and policies and producing this report of the consultation.  In addition, consultation participants agreed on a set of recommendations for countries in the region in three main policy areas in order to protect the food security of the poor in small importing countries: (1) domestic measures to address rising food prices in 2010/11, (2) regional trade measures and cooperation and (3) regional weather and crop prospects.