The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2022

Rotari Master’s Thesis Award Ceremony

Institutional greetings
Stefano Schiavo  - Direttore della Scuola di Studi Internazionali, Università di Trento
Luca Rigotti - Presidente Gruppo Mezzacorona
 

This year's Prize is awarded to Maria Aida Cavalera.

The title of her Master's Thesis is 'Securing Environmental Justice: the Law and Discursive Politics of Indigenous-led Resistance against the Dakota Access Pipeline'.

Supervisor: prof. Louisa R. Parks

Rotari Annual Lecture

The geography of food and agricultural trade: Policy approaches for sustainable development
A flagship report of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Speaker. George Rapsomanikis - FAO Markets and Trade Division

Abstract

The 2022 edition of The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets discusses how trade policies based on both multilateral and regional approaches can address today’s challenges for sustainable development. Trade policies in food and agriculture should tackle the trade-offs between economic and environmental objectives, safeguard global food security and strengthen the resilience of the global agrifood system to shocks, such as conflicts, pandemics and extreme weather events. The report discusses the geography of trade to provide a systematic framework for the analysis of food and agricultural trade and its patterns across countries and regions, its drivers and the trade policy environment. Comparative advantage, trade policies and trade costs shape the patterns of trade in food and agriculture. When comparative advantage plays out in the global market, trade benefits all countries. Lowering tariff barriers and reducing trade costs can promote trade and economic growth. Both multilateral and regional trade agreements can facilitate this process of making trade an avenue for growth but the gains of trade are distributed differently. When global environmental impacts, such as climate change, are considered, a multilateral approach to trade can help expand the reach of mitigation measures.

Bio

George Rapsomanikis is a Senior Economist in the FAO Markets and Trade Division, where he leads the Commodity Markets and Development Team. His work covers a broad range of issues related to the contribution of trade and markets to food security and sustainable development. Since 2011, he supports the G20 and the G7 in their discussions on global agriculture, food security and development, and has taken leading roles in the development of major policy documents, such as the G20 report on Price Volatility in Food and Agricultural Markets: Policy Responses. He has served as the Editor of the FAO Commodity Market Review (2007-2010), the UNCTAD-FAO Commodities and Development Report (2017), and the FAO flagship reports The State of Food Insecurity in the World (2013-2015), and The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets (2018, 2020, 2022). He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Reading, UK, and has published research on global agricultural commodity markets, price volatility, smallholder farmers’ market integration and agricultural and food policies.

The flier is available in the box of download.