Under new market environment, various developing countries are expected to face different situation and challenges in their agricultural sector, which may well result in different group of developing countries emphasizing upon different issues. First, there is a number of developing countries with relatively low protection of agriculture who are major exporters of agricultural commodities. These countries might face two major challenges in exporting their agricultural products: (a) the continued presence of high tariffs and substantial Aggregate Measure of Support (AMS) by developed countries which restrict market access, (b) developed countries export subsidies which make it difficult for them to compete in third country market. Second, there is another group of countries which includes the traditional net food importing developing countries (NFIDCs) and other with substantial protection of agriculture which, are concerned that export subsidy reduction by the developed countries will increase their import bills. These countries, therefore, have been seeking to obtain an increased amount of food aid through the recently renegotiated Food Aid Convention.

Private standards are set by the food producing industry and retailers, mainly to assure food safety and good agricultural practice. This title presents research and analysis to explore the issues surrounding smallholders, private standards, and exports from Africa.

The last decade has witnessed a steady decline in the dollar values of many of the traditional agricultural export crops (TAEs) from developing countries, and this has highlighted the risks of depending upon a very narrow export base for foreign exchange earning. This report examines a range of issues related to the market for non-traditional agricultural exports (NTAEs), including data on trends during the years 1992 to 2001, both in volume and value terms; leading developing country exporters; the trade and import policies of the major destination buyers; the prospects for developing niche markets for organic and fair trade NTAEs.