In the first half of 2008, the world was facing the highest food price levels in 30 years and a global food insecurity crisis. Although international food prices have since fallen, they are still above the levels seen in recent years and are expected to remain so. FAO estimates that soaring food prices pushed another 115 million people into chronic hunger in 2007 and 2008, bringing the world total to nearly one billion hungry people. This report explains why food prices increased and the steps needed to ensure that high food prices become an opportunity for developing country farmers to help safeguard world food supplies at affordable prices. It focuses on the extent to which "new" explanations - biofuel demand, record oil prices and increasing food demand in China and India - can account for the sudden food price inflation as well as the role of traditional market drivers. It also explores why so few producers in developing countries responded by investing more and increasing production. The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2009 aims to bring to a wider public an accessible discussion of agricultural commodity market issues and policy matters. It seeks to provide an objective and straightforward treatment of economic issues for all those interested in agricultural commodity market developments and their impact on developing countries. Also published in Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish

TheState of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2006 focuses on the question of why the development and food security needs of developing countries need to be better reflected in the design and implementation of new agreements on further liberalization of international agricultural markets, and on the mechanisms under discussion to achieve this goal. In the WTO Doha Development Round, how to safeguard the interests of enveloping countries, especially the lower-income countries, has proved to be highly topical but is also problematic: the issues and arguments are complex and sometimes controversial. The stalling of the Doha Round in July 2006 has provided an opportunity to revisit the issues of how future reductions in import tariffs on agricultural products will affect different developing countries, whether there might be any negative repercussions of further liberalization and, if so, how these might be addressed in the formulation of new trade rules.

In the first half of 2008, the world was facing the highest food price levels in 30 years and a global food insecurity crisis. This report explains why food prices increased and the steps needed to ensure that high food prices become an opportunity for developing country farmers to help safeguard world food supplies at affordable prices.

"The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2004" is the first issue of a new biennial publication that aims to present commodity market issues in an objective and accessible way to policy-makers, commodity market observers and all those interested in agricultural commodity market developments and their impacts on developing countries. It is intended to raise awareness of the impacts of international commodity price movements on the livelihoods and food security of hundreds of millions of people in the developing world as well as the economies of dozens of developing countries that depend on commodity exports for a substantial part of their export earnings or on food imports for a substantial share of their available food supplies.

"The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2004" is the first issue of a new biennial publication that aims to present commodity market issues in an objective and accessible way to policy-makers, commodity market observers and all those interested in agricultural commodity market developments and their impacts on developing countries. It is intended to raise awareness of the impacts of international commodity price movements on the livelihoods and food security of hundreds of millions of people in the developing world as well as the economies of dozens of developing countries that depend on commodity exports for a substantial part of their export earnings or on food imports for a substantial share of their available food supplies.