ANNEX 5. Trade and Food Security: The Current Situation
Trade and Food Security: The Current Situation
Introduction
Basic Data on Trade and Aid Flows
Trade in Cereals
Trade in Forage
Trade in Oilseed
Trade in Legumes
Trade in Bovine Meat
Trade in Non-Bovine meat
Trade in Fish
Trade Flows – Discussion
Global Food Aid Data
Which are the main regions of food insecurity or deficit?
Food Deficit Indicators
Other Indicators
Annex 1: Country Data on Food Aid
Annex 2: Conceptual Discussion about Food Security and Trade
Annex 3: Fish Trade from Sub-Saharan Africa
References
Introduction
This section looks at the current flows in food trade and food aid around the world. It uses both data to show the magnitude and direction of trade in key food productions, and to look at how important food aid is. Key areas of food deficit and insecurity are then highlighted, using the reported data alongside other food security indicators.
This section will also present a discussion of the relevant concepts and definitions used to explore food security issues and the associated complexities. These can then be used, in conjunction with the data on physical flows to develop an understanding of the current situation of food insecurities across the world.
Basic Data on Trade and Aid Flows
The following section presents data on trade flows of key products, by presenting the value of imports from different global regions, to each region. This gives a broad view of trade, both in terms of regions rather than individual countries, and in terms of staple food products, since the tables show products at an aggregated SITC code[1], without presenting the data at a more detailed level.
The first in each set of tables shows the value of imports by source and destination region in million US dollars. Where the source data indicates there are no imports from a particular source/destination, the tables give a dash. Where the tables show zero, it is because the data shows some positive value less than $0.5m. It is also important to remember that if a region is dominated by one country (e.g. USA in NAFTA) then the intra-regional trade figures are lower than for regions with many countries trading such as the EU. Therefore, intra-regional trade for the EU is more dominant than other regions in these tables.
There are also data for each product and region over time. These were constructed by taking the imports from the whole world to each region, so including intra-regional trade. This slight difference in definition accounts for the differences in totals between the tables showing imports by region and the tables showing imports over time.
Although the focus has been on value of trade we have also looked at traded quantities where data are available to check whether conclusions are valid when considering traded quantities. In most cases traded values are proportional to values for each region but where there are variations this is noted in the text.
Comtrade, the source of these data, does not make it clear whether the results are in constant dollars or in the dollars for each year.
Trade in Cereals
Tables 1 to 4 show the value of wheat and rice imports from different regions of the world, into each region. The first thing to note is that the value of trade in wheat is greater than of rice. Whilst the EU27 is an important exporter of wheat, the intra-EU trade dominates. NAFTA exports a large value of wheat to all regions. In terms of imports, North Africa and the Middle East (NAME) and South Asia both import large values of wheat, from NAFTA, the EU27 and CIT in particular. Sub-Saharan Africa is a net importer of wheat, but does export some to East Asia. In terms of rice trade, again, intra-EU trade is large, also intra-South Asian trade. Again, NAME is a major importer. Sub-Saharan Africa imports much more than it exports too. South Asia and South-East Asia are net exporters, in particular within the two regions and to NAME.
The volume of both rice and wheat traded seems very proportional to the value for each region.
Over time, the value of wheat imports has increased in most regions, with a sharper increase between 2005 and 2007, except the value of imports to East Asia fell slightly over this period. This may be more due to missing data if the value for East Asian imports from Table 1 is considered. The value of imports to South Asia rose greatly in this period to. Import to NAME fell between 2001 and 2003 but rose again after that.
Looking at the trade in rice, the value over the whole time period was also generally upwards, except for South East Asia, for which it fell sharply from 1999 to 2001, and despites rises since, has not reached 1999 levels. Also, the value of Sub-Saharan imports fell from 2005-2007.
Table 1: Global trade in wheat, SITC3 041 (million USD, 2007) Source: UN Comtrade
toCIT / E ASIA / EU27 / NAFTA / NAME / OCNIA / S ASIA / SE ASIA / SSA / LATAM / Total / Net Exports
from / CIT / 871 / 13 / 572 / 0 / 1635 / - / 3410 / 25 / 262 / 4 / 6791 / 5873
E ASIA / - / 224 / 0 / 0 / 1 / 0 / 25 / 237 / 1 / 0 / 487 / -2020
EU27 / 46 / 2 / 5447 / 0 / 1838 / 0 / 502 / 1 / 423 / 0 / 8260 / 744
NAFTA / 0 / 1737 / 1425 / 1380 / 1985 / 11 / 2522 / 1579 / 598 / 1887 / 13125 / 11744
NAME / 1 / 0 / 62 / 0 / 347 / 0 / 40 / 1 / 26 / 0 / 477 / -5691
OCEANIA / 0 / 532 / 4 / 0 / 138 / 94 / 843 / 666 / 84 / 0 / 2360 / 2255
S ASIA / - / 0 / 0 / 0 / 39 / 0 / 102 / 22 / 2 / 0 / 165 / -7280
SE ASIA / - / 0 / - / - / 27 / - / 0 / 18 / 0 / 0 / 45 / -2581
SSA / - / 1 / 0 / 8 / - / 0 / 0 / 59 / 0 / 68 / -1625
LATAM / - / 5 / 0 / 149 / - / - / 78 / 239 / 1528 / 1999 / -1419
Total / 918 / 2507 / 7516 / 1381 / 6167 / 106 / 7445 / 2626 / 1693 / 3419 / 33778
Table 2: Global trade by volume in wheat, SITC3 041 (thousand tonnes, 2007) Source: UN Comtrade
toCIT / E ASIA / EU27 / NAFTA / NAME / OCNIA / S ASIA / SE ASIA / SSA / LATAM / Total / Net Exports
from / CIT / 4099 / 66 / 2088 / 0 / 5887 / - / 3410 / 100 / 920 / 20 / 16590 / 12337
E ASIA / 1068 / 0 / 0 / 3 / 0 / 25 / 897 / 4 / 0 / 1998 / -6637
EU27 / 152 / 4 / 21055 / 1 / 6675 / 0 / 502 / 3 / 1337 / 0 / 29728 / 2191
NAFTA / 1 / 5703 / 4158 / 5622 / 6183 / 37 / 2522 / 5917 / 2113 / 6684 / 38940 / 33317
NAME / 2 / 0 / 210 / 0 / 1243 / 0 / 40 / 4 / 72 / 0 / 1572 / -19856
OCEANIA / 0 / 1794 / 8 / 0 / 544 / 349 / 843 / 3351 / 398 / 0 / 7287 / 6899
S ASIA / 0 / 0 / 0 / 163 / 2 / 102 / 114 / 11 / 0 / 392 / -7053
SE ASIA / 0 / 112 / - / 0 / 65 / 0 / 0 / 177 / -10607
SSA / 4 / 0 / 40 / - / 0 / 0 / 266 / 0 / 310 / -5806
LATAM / 13 / 0 / 578 / - / 333 / 995 / 7223 / 9142 / -4785
Total / 4253 / 8635 / 27537 / 5623 / 21428 / 388 / 7445 / 10784 / 6115 / 13927 / 106136
Table 3: Trade in wheat (SITC3 041) from all countries to each region over time (million USD, 2007). Source UN Comtrade.
1999 / 2001 / 2003 / 2005 / 2007CIT / 592 / 333 / 865 / 468 / 918
E ASIA / 1,700 / 1,712 / 1,788 / 2,674 / 2,507
EU27 / 3,464 / 3,498 / 4,180 / 4,668 / 7,539
NAFTA / 630 / 736 / 716 / 795 / 1,381
NAME / 3,022 / 3,741 / 2,941 / 3,530 / 6,323
OCEANIA / 41 / 73 / 125 / 108 / 148
S ASIA / 689 / 408 / 411 / 561 / 1,975
SE ASIA / 1,216 / 1,356 / 1,531 / 1,948 / 2,638
SSA / 920 / 1,166 / 1,717 / 1,568 / 1,712
LATAM / 2,048 / 2,079 / 2,262 / 2,043 / 3,423
Total / 14,322 / 15,103 / 16,535 / 18,362 / 28,564
Table 4: Global trade in rice, SITC3 042 (million USD, 2007) Source: UN Comtrade
toCIT / E ASIA / EU27 / NAFTA / NAME / OCNIA / S ASIA / SE ASIA / SSA / LATAM / Total / Net Exports
from / CIT / 20 / 0 / 1 / 0 / 2 / 0 / 262 / 0 / 285 / 83
E ASIA / 16 / 155 / 6 / 50 / 7 / 4 / 11 / 29 / 1 / 4 / 283 / -645
EU27 / 15 / 1 / 1120 / 14 / 19 / 6 / 0 / 0 / 423 / 2 / 1599 / -356
NAFTA / 3 / 254 / 33 / 368 / 126 / 9 / 0 / 6 / 598 / 260 / 1655 / 779
NAME / 32 / 3 / 43 / 11 / 260 / 0 / 1 / 1 / 26 / 0 / 377 / -1732
OCEANIA / 0 / 30 / 1 / 1 / 54 / 51 / 1 / 3 / 84 / 0 / 224 / 68
S ASIA / 44 / 2 / 346 / 130 / 1428 / 26 / 1301 / 49 / 2 / 1 / 3328 / 2006
SE ASIA / 70 / 484 / 283 / 299 / 212 / 61 / 7 / 1530 / 0 / 3 / 2948 / 1330
SSA / 1 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 59 / 0 / 60 / -1634
LATAM / 2 / 0 / 122 / 5 / 2 / 0 / 0 / 239 / 422 / 791 / 100
Total / 202 / 928 / 1955 / 876 / 2109 / 156 / 1322 / 1617 / 1693 / 691 / 11551
Table 5: Global trade by volume in rice, SITC3 042 (thousand tonnes, 2007) Source: UN Comtrade
toCIT / E ASIA / EU27 / NAFTA / NAME / OCNIA / S ASIA / SE ASIA / SSA / LATAM / Total / Net Exports
from / CIT / 56 / 0 / 2 / 0 / 4 / 0 / 920 / 0 / 982 / 418
E ASIA / 55 / 275 / 10 / 136 / 16 / 6 / 11 / 50 / 4 / 9 / 574 / -1213
EU27 / 21 / 0 / 1507 / 10 / 28 / 5 / 0 / 0 / 1,337 / 2 / 2909 / -127
NAFTA / 4 / 394 / 48 / 1058 / 174 / 23 / 0 / 7 / 2,113 / 757 / 4578 / 2725
NAME / 114 / 6 / 131 / 22 / 558 / 1 / 1 / 2 / 72 / 0 / 906 / -2713
OCEANIA / 0 / 47 / 2 / 1 / 85 / 72 / 1 / 4 / 398 / 0 / 610 / 361
S ASIA / 129 / 3 / 534 / 161 / 2288 / 33 / 1301 / 114 / 11 / 1 / 4574 / 3252
SE ASIA / 180 / 1062 / 494 / 457 / 464 / 109 / 7 / 4219 / 0 / 5 / 6995 / 2598
SSA / 1 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 266 / 0 / 267 / -5848
LATAM / 5 / 0 / 310 / 8 / 3 / 0 / 0 / 995 / 1167 / 2487 / 547
Total / 564 / 1787 / 3036 / 1853 / 3620 / 249 / 1322 / 4396 / 6115 / 1941 / 24883
Table 6: Trade in rice (SITC3 042) from all countries to each region over time (million USD, 2007). Source UN Comtrade.
1999 / 2001 / 2003 / 2005 / 2007CIT / 211 / 94 / 122 / 174 / 202
E ASIA / 618 / 465 / 548 / 727 / 928
EU27 / 1,249 / 1,076 / 1,297 / 1,428 / 1,958
NAFTA / 454 / 405 / 498 / 569 / 876
NAME / 1,326 / 1,173 / 1,326 / 1,774 / 2,111
OCEANIA / 52 / 109 / 153 / 136 / 172
S ASIA / 92 / 76 / 208 / 133 / 405
SE ASIA / 1,916 / 579 / 713 / 929 / 1,618
SSA / 734 / 1,146 / 1,387 / 1,836 / 1,689
LATAM / 728 / 479 / 594 / 696 / 692
Total / 7,381 / 5,604 / 6,847 / 8,402 / 10,650
Trade in Forage
Table 7 shows global trade in forage (SITC rev 3, 081). It shows that Sub-Saharan Africa is a net exporter, by value. The overall trade is large, with NAFTA and Latin America being the largest exporters. The EU27 is the largest receiver of forage, but East Asia also has a sizeable deficit. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia have small trade surpluses, but CIT and NAME are in deficit. The volume and value of trade seem proportional to each other.
Looking at how this has changed over time, it is clear that there has been a steady rise in the value of imports for all regions over the time period in question. EU27 imports dominate and have the largest overall rise in value as well. There was a relatively sharp rise in the value of imports to sub-Saharan Africa from 1999-2001.
Table 7: Global trade in forage, SITC3 081 (million USD, 2007) Source: UN Comtrade
toCIT / E ASIA / EU27 / NAFTA / NAME / OCNIA / S ASIA / SE ASIA / SSA / LATAM / Total / Net Exports
from / CIT / 223 / 52 / 279 / 0 / 95 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 650 / -1044
E ASIA / 9 / 687 / 109 / 210 / 13 / 6 / 20 / 104 / 1 / 40 / 1199 / -4461
EU27 / 865 / 237 / 12143 / 219 / 410 / 41 / 19 / 93 / 34 / 156 / 14216 / -7079
NAFTA / 75 / 1733 / 679 / 2514 / 347 / 123 / 5 / 406 / 2 / 873 / 6757 / 3577
NAME / 26 / 7 / 58 / 0 / 222 / 3 / 1 / 13 / 2 / 1 / 333 / -1519
OCEANIA / 1 / 378 / 18 / 37 / 22 / 100 / 2 / 131 / 0 / 0 / 688 / 42
S ASIA / 1 / 521 / 23 / 2 / 39 / 3 / 114 / 231 / 1 / 0 / 937 / 741
SE ASIA / 10 / 537 / 414 / 93 / 16 / 155 / 25 / 198 / 1 / 1 / 1449 / -793
SSA / 20 / 35 / 36 / 23 / 43 / 1 / 0 / 2 / 43 / 4 / 208 / 119
LATAM / 463 / 1473 / 7536 / 81 / 646 / 215 / 10 / 1063 / 5 / 1393 / 12885 / 10416
Total / 1694 / 5660 / 21295 / 3179 / 1852 / 646 / 196 / 2241 / 89 / 2469 / 39321
Table 8: Global trade by volume in forage, SITC3 081 (thounsand tonnes, 2007) Source: UN Comtrade
toCIT / E ASIA / EU27 / NAFTA / NAME / OCNIA / S ASIA / SE ASIA / SSA / LATAM / Total / Net Exports
from / CIT / 866 / 48 / 1536 / 0 / 433 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 2884 / -527
E ASIA / 17 / 2295 / 101 / 79 / 30 / 449 / 11 / 259 / 0 / 27 / 3268 / -10973
EU27 / 1054 / 164 / 25804 / 69 / 1,005 / 713 / 6 / 108 / 167 / 133 / 29223 / -29008
NAFTA / 142 / 4645 / 2012 / 8457 / 948 / 711 / 3 / 1037 / 100 / 2350 / 20406 / 11394
NAME / 34 / 17 / 296 / 0 / 775 / 227 / 2 / 45 / 6 / 2 / 1403 / -4348
OCEANIA / 0 / 775 / 16 / 52 / 54 / 46 / 2 / 311 / 0 / 0 / 1256 / -1025
S ASIA / 4 / 2301 / 69 / 3 / 173 / 46 / 440 / 882 / 1 / 0 / 3919 / 3402
SE ASIA / 6 / 1569 / 2141 / 48 / 24 / 27 / 44 / 387 / 4 / 1 / 4252 / -2180
SSA / 23 / 36 / 157 / 195 / 210 / 0 / 0 / 3 / 27 / 32 / 683 / 375
LATAM / 1263 / 2392 / 26099 / 109 / 2,099 / 63 / 9 / 3399 / 3 / 4330 / 39765 / 32890
Total / 3410 / 14241 / 58230 / 9012 / 5751 / 2282 / 517 / 6432 / 308 / 6875 / 107059
Table 9: Trade in forage (SITC3 081) from all countries to each region over time (million USD, 2007). Source UN Comtrade.
1999 / 2001 / 2003 / 2005 / 2007CIT / 356 / 426 / 604 / 1,016 / 1,701
E ASIA / 3,120 / 3,516 / 3,792 / 4,925 / 5,684
EU27 / 10,647 / 11,778 / 14,175 / 16,297 / 21,784
NAFTA / 1,514 / 1,756 / 2,028 / 2,319 / 3,190
NAME / 985 / 1,391 / 1,403 / 1,505 / 1,906
OCEANIA / 164 / 210 / 320 / 366 / 672
S ASIA / 88 / 166 / 225 / 260 / 360
SE ASIA / 1,316 / 1,988 / 2,374 / 3,075 / 4,406
SSA / 43 / 233 / 264 / 325 / 502
LATAM / 977 / 1,251 / 1,306 / 1,748 / 2,487
Total / 19,210 / 22,714 / 26,492 / 31,835 / 42,692
Trade in Oilseed
Global trade in oilseed is mainly from NAFTA and Latin America, with East Asia and the EU27 the largest importers. Again, NAME is a net importer, mainly from NAFTA, whilst Sub-Saharan Africa has a slight trade surplus through exporting to East Asia, NAME and the EU27.
Over time, imports of oilseed to East Asia and the EU27 have been the highest by value over the whole period, with East Asia overtaking the EU27 between 2001 and 2003. Of the other countries, the CIT and Oceania experienced a small fall between 1999 and 2001, and Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and the EU27 had small decrease in value between 2003 and 2005. However, these may have beeen caused by changes in data availability.
There are no data available for the volume of trade in oilseed from UN Comtrade.
Table 10: Global trade in oilseed, SITC3 22 (million USD, 2007) Source: UN Comtrade
toCIT / E ASIA / EU27 / NAFTA / NAME / OCNIA / S ASIA / SE ASIA / SSA / LATAM / Total / Net Exports
from / CIT / 121 / 3 / 448 / 3 / 8 / 0 / 132 / - / - / 0 / 713 / 240
E ASIA / 58 / 273 / 351 / 102 / 62 / 15 / 2 / 48 / 2 / 5 / 918 / -14586
EU27 / 136 / 3 / 3460 / 36 / 54 / 1 / 77 / 0 / 5 / 3 / 3777 / -7238
NAFTA / 49 / 7215 / 1920 / 2627 / 620 / 7 / 241 / 793 / 16 / 257 / 13744 / 10759
NAME / 0 / 1 / 54 / 3 / 23 / 1 / 0 / 1 / 0 / 2 / 85 / -1313
OCEANIA / 0 / 91 / 11 / 7 / 0 / 5 / 38 / 30 / 1 / 2 / 186 / 115
S ASIA / 13 / 72 / 98 / 64 / 43 / 7 / 17 / 86 / 3 / 3 / 405 / -201
SE ASIA / 1 / 50 / 19 / 3 / 7 / 1 / 3 / 83 / 0 / 1 / 168 / -1423
SSA / 2 / 188 / 128 / 27 / 150 / 0 / 28 / 8 / 58 / 6 / 594 / 472
LATAM / 94 / 7608 / 4527 / 114 / 429 / 33 / 67 / 543 / 36 / 961 / 14413 / 13174
Total / 474 / 15504 / 11015 / 2984 / 1398 / 71 / 606 / 1591 / 122 / 1239 / 35004
Table 11: Trade in oilseed (SITC3 22) from all countries to each region over time (million USD, 2007). Source UN Comtrade.
1999 / 2001 / 2003 / 2005 / 2007CIT / 157 / 113 / 164 / 270 / 501
E ASIA / 4,014 / 5,515 / 8,481 / 10,909 / 15,512
EU27 / 5,996 / 6,489 / 7,805 / 7,597 / 11,075
NAFTA / 1,675 / 1,797 / 2,092 / 2,190 / 2,987
NAME / 528 / 666 / 883 / 1,356 / 1,459
OCEANIA / 54 / 34 / 63 / 64 / 71
S ASIA / 123 / 212 / 355 / 411 / 628
SE ASIA / 952 / 896 / 1,178 / 1,179 / 1,593
SSA / 13 / 48 / 77 / 73 / 123
LATAM / 400 / 654 / 784 / 727 / 1,239
Total / 13,912 / 16,425 / 21,882 / 24,776 / 35,188
Trade in Legumes
The overall global trade in legumes is comparatively small. Whilst NAFTA is the largest exporter of legumes, South Asia is the largest importer. The EU27 also imports a large value of legumes annually, and NAME is also a net importer. It is also worth noting the exports from Sub-Saharan Africa to NAME. The trade by value and by volume follow the same proportions.
Whilst South Asia was the biggest importer in 2007, it is interesting to note that the value of its imports has increased greatly since 1999, at which time is was only fifth, behind NAFTA, Latin America, NAME and the EU27. This is despite a fall in values from 2001-2003, but growth was particularly strong in the periods 1999-2001 and 2005-2007. The other regions have experienced an overall rise in the value of imports, with some small declines during certain periods.
Table 12: Global trade in legumes, SITC3 0542 (thousand USD, 2007) Source: UN Comtrade
toCIT / E ASIA / EU27 / NAFTA / NAME / OCNIA / S ASIA / SE ASIA / SSA / LATAM / Total / Net Exports
from / CIT / 28 / 0 / 26 / 0 / 3 / - / 26 / 0 / 1 / 0 / 84 / 26
E ASIA / 6 / 93 / 132 / 35 / 44 / 1 / 53 / 18 / 36 / 22 / 440 / 178
EU27 / 8 / 4 / 319 / 6 / 84 / 0 / 51 / 1 / 18 / 1 / 492 / -574
NAFTA / 11 / 100 / 388 / 241 / 168 / 16 / 747 / 16 / 68 / 159 / 1912 / 1557
NAME / 3 / 0 / 17 / 2 / 81 / 0 / 13 / 1 / 2 / 0 / 119 / -449
OCEANIA / 0 / 2 / 15 / 8 / 39 / 3 / 165 / 15 / 1 / 0 / 250 / 228
S ASIA / 0 / 29 / 21 / 24 / 62 / 1 / 42 / 6 / 1 / 1 / 187 / -1532
SE ASIA / 0 / 30 / 10 / 12 / 29 / 1 / 522 / 66 / 1 / 0 / 671 / 544
SSA / 1 / 0 / 25 / 3 / 28 / 0 / 100 / 3 / 52 / 0 / 212 / 22
LATAM / 2 / 4 / 112 / 25 / 29 / 0 / 1 / 0 / 11 / 186 / 372 / 1
Total / 58 / 262 / 1066 / 356 / 567 / 22 / 1719 / 127 / 190 / 370 / 4737
Table 13: Global trade by volume in legumes, SITC3 0542 (thousand tonnes, 2007) Source: UN Comtrade
toCIT / E ASIA / EU27 / NAFTA / NAME / OCNIA / S ASIA / SE ASIA / SSA / LATAM / Total / Net Exports
from / CIT / 55.70 / 5.09 / 69.94 / 0.31 / 5.76 / 79.37 / 0.04 / 1.05 / 217 / 115
E ASIA / 10.43 / 128.33 / 160.83 / 42.19 / 72.47 / 0.69 / 74.07 / 46.80 / 54.94 / 37.18 / 628 / 92
EU27 / 8.41 / 4.48 / 525.15 / 4.03 / 188.39 / 0.20 / 140.85 / 2.09 / 32.73 / 1.40 / 908 / -708
NAFTA / 16.40 / 305.10 / 623.35 / 392.62 / 309.79 / 19.77 / 1983.53 / 45.30 / 125.65 / 330.37 / 4152 / 3641
NAME / 5.25 / 0.08 / 22.76 / 1.20 / 151.46 / 0.16 / 19.79 / 0.97 / 1.59 / 0.28 / 204 / -918
OCEANIA / 1.43 / 3.24 / 15.13 / 9.74 / 122.31 / 1.41 / 300.88 / 36.17 / 1.27 / 0.21 / 492 / 468
S ASIA / 0.05 / 26.79 / 21.57 / 24.54 / 93.51 / 0.63 / 59.62 / 16.80 / 1.26 / 0.44 / 245 / -3437
SE ASIA / 0.35 / 58.55 / 9.66 / 10.25 / 46.12 / 0.74 / 837.71 / 132.30 / 1.07 / 0.33 / 1097 / 812
SSA / 1.01 / 0.02 / 32.25 / 2.81 / 49.22 / 0.14 / 184.46 / 4.12 / 161.13 / 0.07 / 435 / 34
LATAM / 3.53 / 4.16 / 134.68 / 22.90 / 82.32 / 0.03 / 1.57 / 0.48 / 20.40 / 275.18 / 545 / -100
Total / 103 / 536 / 1615 / 511 / 1121 / 24 / 3682 / 285 / 401 / 645 / 8923
Table 14: Trade in legumes (SITC3 0542) from all countries to each region over time (million USD, 2007). Source UN Comtrade.
1999 / 2001 / 2003 / 2005 / 2007CIT / 19 / 27 / 23 / 32 / 59
E ASIA / 151 / 161 / 137 / 210 / 262
EU27 / 871 / 765 / 757 / 1,030 / 1,116
NAFTA / 229 / 234 / 244 / 310 / 360
NAME / 413 / 430 / 368 / 486 / 608
OCEANIA / 14 / 16 / 20 / 20 / 26
S ASIA / 210 / 943 / 816 / 948 / 1,752
SE ASIA / 85 / 83 / 74 / 92 / 131
SSA / 35 / 66 / 137 / 167 / 191
LATAM / 327 / 332 / 316 / 380 / 371
Total / 2,353 / 3,056 / 2,892 / 3,675 / 4,876
Trade in Bovine Meat
Oceania is a major exporter in bovine meat (beef), along with Latin America. Whilst the EU27 and NAFTA export relatively large values, they also import a lot. East Asia is the largest net importer. Again, Sub-Saharan Africa is a net exporter of beef.
The value of imports from NAFTA to South Asia is much smaller than the volume would suggest, in comparison with other trade flows. Also, the value of imports to the EU are much larger than the volumes would suggest. This suggests differences in the quality of products exported to the EU which are masked in the aggregated data.
The EU27 has been the largest importer by value since 1999, except for 2001 where a large fall in the value of imports, coupled with a small rise in NAFTA imports meant that the EU27 fell slightly behind NAFTA. Imports to East Asia have fluctuated but on the whole, have not risen or fallen much, whereas most other regions experienced an overall growth in the value of imports.
Table 15: Global Trade in bovine meat, SITC3 011 (million USD, 2007) Source: UN Comtrade
toCIT / E ASIA / EU27 / NAFTA / NAME / OCNIA / S ASIA / SE ASIA / SSA / LATAM / Total / Net Exports
from / CIT / 116 / - / 18 / 0 / 1 / - / 19 / 0 / 0 / - / 154 / -1749
E ASIA / 7 / 28 / 0 / 39 / 25 / 0 / 29 / 8 / 0 / 0 / 138 / -3092
EU27 / 138 / 3 / 9873 / 5 / 38 / 0 / 37 / 0 / 8 / 7 / 10111 / -2005
NAFTA / 2 / 414 / 32 / 2682 / 25 / 7 / 559 / 11 / 0 / 83 / 3814 / -1212
NAME / 0 / - / 0 / 1 / 12 / 0 / 2 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 17 / -1380
OCEANIA / 16 / 2691 / 90 / 1747 / 71 / 69 / 3 / 180 / 2 / 7 / 4877 / 4792
S ASIA / 20 / 0 / 0 / 23 / 327 / 0 / 13 / 250 / 28 / 17 / 678 / -58
SE ASIA / - / 0 / 1 / 10 / 1 / 0 / 2 / 4 / 0 / 0 / 18 / -533
SSA / 0 / 0 / 97 / 3 / 5 / 0 / 71 / 0 / 13 / 1 / 189 / 93
LATAM / 1602 / 95 / 2004 / 515 / 893 / 8 / 1 / 97 / 44 / 909 / 6168 / 5145
Total / 1903 / 3230 / 12116 / 5026 / 1398 / 85 / 736 / 551 / 96 / 1024 / 26164
Table 16: Global trade by volume in bovine meat, SITC3 011 (thousand tonnes, 2007) Source: UN Comtrade
toCIT / E ASIA / EU27 / NAFTA / NAME / OCNIA / S ASIA / SE ASIA / SSA / LATAM / Total / Net Exports
from / CIT / 42.7 / 3.2 / 0.3 / 0.2 / 52.1 / 0.0 / 0.0 / 98 / -721
E ASIA / 4.7 / 12.8 / 0.1 / 37.8 / 9.2 / 0.5 / 36.0 / 3.7 / 0.2 / 0.2 / 105 / -662
EU27 / 51.5 / 0.4 / 1924.3 / 3.5 / 10.2 / 0.1 / 104.6 / 0.4 / 4.7 / 4.2 / 2104 / -126
NAFTA / 1.5 / 78.1 / 3.1 / 1024.7 / 5.1 / 7.3 / 1529.2 / 2.9 / 0.2 / 18.0 / 2670 / 857
NAME / 0.8 / 0.1 / 1.1 / 5.1 / 0.0 / 2.0 / 0.0 / 0.2 / 0.1 / 9 / -600
OCEANIA / 8.8 / 637.3 / 9.2 / 516.5 / 14.3 / 15.8 / 0.6 / 61.0 / 2.2 / 2.5 / 1268 / 1242
S ASIA / 17.5 / 0.0 / 0.0 / 23.3 / 176.4 / 0.2 / 11.2 / 156.6 / 22.8 / 13.6 / 422 / -1456
SE ASIA / 0.0 / 0.1 / 8.7 / 0.3 / 0.3 / 2.6 / 1.4 / 0.0 / 0.0 / 13 / -270
SSA / 0.0 / 0.0 / 18.5 / 2.5 / 1.2 / 0.0 / 139.3 / 0.1 / 4.6 / 0.1 / 166 / 105
LATAM / 691.4 / 38.6 / 271.5 / 194.3 / 387.5 / 1.9 / 0.5 / 57.0 / 26.3 / 261.0 / 1930 / 1630
Total / 819.0 / 767.3 / 2230.0 / 1812.7 / 609.5 / 26.1 / 1878.1 / 283.0 / 61.2 / 299.7 / 8787
Table 17: Trade in bovine meat (SITC3 011) from all countries to each region over time (million USD,
2007). Source UN Comtrade.
1999 / 2001 / 2003 / 2005 / 2007CIT / 610 / 559 / 677 / 1,083 / 1,902
E ASIA / 3,050 / 2,924 / 3,383 / 2,836 / 3,231
EU27 / 5,946 / 3,706 / 6,577 / 9,092 / 12,123
NAFTA / 3,039 / 4,014 / 3,814 / 4,607 / 4,682
NAME / 700 / 538 / 777 / 1,030 / 1,398
OCEANIA / 30 / 51 / 66 / 75 / 81
S ASIA / 3 / 2 / 3 / 6 / 15
SE ASIA / 233 / 274 / 275 / 408 / 551
SSA / 21 / 33 / 49 / 96 / 96
LATAM / 350 / 377 / 429 / 662 / 993
Total / 13,983 / 12,480 / 16,049 / 19,894 / 25,072
Trade in non-bovine meat
The classification SITC 012 contains non-bovine meat products, including sheepmeat, chicken and pigmeat. It also includes bovine offal (SITC 012.51 Fresh and Chilled, and 012.52 Frozen) These comprise between 1% and 11% of the total value by trade of 012 Other Meat, as shown in Table 18. With this caveat in mind, the global trade values are presented in Table 19. East Asia and the EU27 are the largest importers, and the EU27, NAFTA and Latin America are the largest exporters. However, when looking at the trade balances, Latin America has the largest trade surplus (exports – imports). Oceania is also a net exporter, in particular to the EU27 and East Asia. East Asia has a very large trade deficit and Sub-Saharan Africa, the CIT and NAME also have significant deficits. Latin America is the main source of non-bovine meat for these regions.
Trade by value is proportional to trade by volume, except in a few cases of small values such as from sub-Saharan Africa to the EU27 where the trade is higher in value than would be otherwise expected.
Again, the EU27 and East Asia were the two largest importers of non-bovine meat over the time period, and all the regions experienced steady growth in imports, except Latin America and South Asia which had small declines from 2005-2007.
Table 18: Bovine offal as a percentage of SITC3 012 ‘Other Meat’. Values in Million USD, 2007. Source: UN Comtrade
Exporting Region / 012 Other Meat total / 012.51 Bovine offal (Fresh, chilled) / 012.52 Bovine Offal (frozen) / Offal Total / As % of total ‘Other Meat’CIT / 113 / 1 / 1 / 2 / 2%
E ASIA / 1,721 / 0 / 133 / 133 / 8%
EU27 / 26,071 / 360 / 158 / 518 / 2%
NAFTA / 9,243 / 76 / 299 / 375 / 4%
NAME / 171 / 0 / 3 / 3 / 2%
OCEANIA / 4,161 / 64 / 373 / 437 / 11%
S ASIA / 59 / 0 / 0 / 1 / 1%
SE ASIA / 174 / 0 / 5 / 5 / 3%
SSA / 157 / 1 / 2 / 2 / 2%
LATAM / 7,085 / 7 / 266 / 273 / 4%
Total / 48,955 / 509 / 1,240 / 1,750 / 4%
Table 19: Global trade in non-bovine meat, SITC3 012 (million USD, 2007) Source: UN Comtrade
toCIT / E ASIA / EU27 / NAFTA / NAME / OCNIA / S ASIA / SE ASIA / SSA / LATAM / Total / Net Exports
from / CIT / 23 / 16 / 26 / - / 0 / 0 / - / 0 / 0 / 0 / 65 / -3716
E ASIA / 28 / 398 / 29 / 19 / 34 / 0 / 0 / 33 / 0 / 0 / 542 / -8712
EU27 / 1138 / 2096 / 19828 / 215 / 226 / 153 / 1 / 94 / 120 / 9 / 23880 / 1319
NAFTA / 1218 / 3766 / 123 / 2924 / 88 / 292 / 0 / 99 / 71 / 284 / 8866 / 4808
NAME / 1 / 2 / 37 / 3 / 94 / 0 / 2 / 0 / 3 / 0 / 141 / -1968
OCEANIA / 83 / 603 / 1582 / 744 / 289 / 75 / 2 / 248 / 74 / 29 / 3729 / 3201
S ASIA / 0 / 1 / 0 / 0 / 115 / - / 1 / 3 / 1 / - / 122 / 111
SE ASIA / 0 / 54 / 37 / 2 / 1 / 0 / 3 / 10 / 0 / 0 / 108 / -631
SSA / 0 / 3 / 44 / 0 / 34 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 41 / - / 123 / -436
LATAM / 1290 / 2315 / 855 / 151 / 1,228 / 7 / 2 / 251 / 248 / 234 / 6580 / 6024
Total / 3781 / 9253 / 22561 / 4059 / 2109 / 528 / 12 / 739 / 558 / 556 / 44156
Table 20: Global trade by value in non-bovine meat, SITC3 012 (thousand tonnes, 2007) Source: UN Comtrade
toCIT / E ASIA / EU27 / NAFTA / NAME / OCNIA / S ASIA / SE ASIA / SSA / LATAM / Total / Net Exports
from / CIT / 10.13 / 2.35 / 4.75 / 0.07 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.04 / 0.02 / 17 / -2942
E ASIA / 22.62 / 231.79 / 6.88 / 4.63 / 17.26 / 0.00 / 0.13 / 20.24 / 0.25 / 0.01 / 304 / -3997
EU27 / 752.01 / 960.67 / 7416.86 / 52.37 / 148.38 / 40.31 / 0.27 / 73.50 / 120.05 / 4.41 / 9569 / 1517
NAFTA / 1395.87 / 1572.22 / 30.90 / 1728.01 / 90.67 / 113.63 / 0.00 / 107.99 / 75.95 / 244.69 / 5360 / 3355
NAME / 0.10 / 1.84 / 15.08 / 0.37 / 45.14 / 0.01 / 0.74 / 0.09 / 2.87 / 0.00 / 66 / -1199
OCEANIA / 45.34 / 162.33 / 265.74 / 162.34 / 110.02 / 26.98 / 0.49 / 113.39 / 70.83 / 15.21 / 973 / 787
S ASIA / 0.00 / 0.55 / 0.03 / 0.01 / 31.27 / 0.48 / 1.76 / 1.47 / 36 / 29
SE ASIA / 0.01 / 21.68 / 8.62 / 0.55 / 0.71 / 0.00 / 2.54 / 6.65 / 0.14 / 0.00 / 41 / -428
SSA / 0.01 / 2.11 / 4.69 / 0.04 / 8.97 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.03 / 30.35 / 46 / -535
LATAM / 733.52 / 1345.56 / 297.78 / 56.84 / 813.10 / 4.86 / 2.22 / 145.30 / 278.81 / 152.97 / 3831 / 3414
Total / 2960 / 4301 / 8051 / 2005 / 1266 / 186 / 7 / 469 / 581 / 417 / 20242
Table 21:Trade in non-bovine meat (SITC3 012) from all countries to each region over time (million USD, 2007). Source UN Comtrade.
1999 / 2001 / 2003 / 2005 / 2007CIT / 866 / 1,425 / 1,825 / 2,521 / 3,787
E ASIA / 6,761 / 7,350 / 7,720 / 8,485 / 9,279
EU27 / 10,389 / 11,704 / 13,648 / 19,147 / 22,634
NAFTA / 1,607 / 2,465 / 2,738 / 3,725 / 4,059
NAME / 1,179 / 1,112 / 1,163 / 1,560 / 2,109
OCEANIA / 104 / 205 / 272 / 418 / 551
S ASIA / 7 / 16 / 16 / 10 / 12
SE ASIA / 334 / 377 / 424 / 486 / 740
SSA / 106 / 237 / 420 / 524 / 561
LATAM / 445 / 454 / 383 / 595 / 558
Total / 21,798 / 25,344 / 28,609 / 37,471 / 44,290
Trade in Fish
The SITC classification does not distinguish between aquaculture and sea fisheries, so Table 22 presents all trade in fish. The total value of fish trade is very large in comparison with the other products examined here. East Asia and the EU27 are large net importers of fish, in East Asia’s case, these come particularly from SE Asia and NAFTA, and the EU27’s imports are largely from Latin America and SE Asia. Fish exports from NAME are also largely to the EU 27 with Morocco by far the largest exporter[2]. The largest overall exporters were East Asia, the EU27 and SE Asia. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are a net exporters, largely to the EU27. The CIT countries mainly export to East Asia.
There are no data available for volumes of trade in fish from the UN Comtrade database.
Again, the EU27, East Asia and NAFTA have the largest value of imports over the whole time period, with large growth in the EU27, and to a lesser extent, NAFTA. The CIT also experienced large and steady growth in the value of fish imports, albeit from a much smaller starting point than the EU27. Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia all had some fluctuations.
Table 22: Global trade in fish, SITC3 03 (million USD, 2007) Source: UN Comtrade
toCIT / E ASIA / EU27 / NAFTA / NAME / OCNIA / S ASIA / SE ASIA / SSA / LATAM / Total / Net Exports
from / CIT / 279 / 2852 / 653 / 1 / 9 / 1 / 17 / 1 / 7 / 3821 / 1798
E ASIA / 295 / 5645 / 1942 / 340 / 79 / 152 / 3 / 710 / 41 / 20 / 9228 / -10294
EU27 / 614 / 808 / 16614 / 19 / 177 / 47 / 2 / 96 / 183 / 78 / 18638 / -13689
NAFTA / 211 / 2723 / 1877 / 9 / 37 / 61 / 2 / 156 / 9 / 179 / 5265 / 4699
NAME / 14 / 320 / 1370 / 0 / 239 / 8 / 3 / 49 / 67 / 19 / 2089 / 925
OCEANIA / 29 / 985 / 292 / 6 / 10 / 193 / 2 / 375 / 20 / 5 / 1918 / 873
S ASIA / 30 / 589 / 1185 / 7 / 128 / 23 / 18 / 222 / 32 / 2 / 2236 / 2198
SE ASIA / 261 / 3854 / 2605 / 26 / 353 / 488 / 7 / 1142 / 73 / 80 / 8888 / 5944
SSA / 50 / 358 / 2157 / 1 / 82 / 41 / 0 / 48 / 288 / 14 / 3039 / 2256
LATAM / 241 / 1387 / 3631 / 158 / 49 / 31 / 1 / 129 / 71 / 870 / 6565 / 5290
Total / 2023 / 19521 / 32327 / 565 / 1165 / 1044 / 38 / 2945 / 783 / 1275 / 61686
Table 23: Trade in fish (SITC3 03) from all countries to each region over time (million USD, 2007). Source UN Comtrade.
1999 / 2001 / 2003 / 2005 / 2007CIT / 355 / 561 / 856 / 1,829 / 3,120
E ASIA / 18,076 / 18,080 / 18,292 / 21,240 / 21,458
EU27 / 19,893 / 20,475 / 25,074 / 30,798 / 39,534
NAFTA / 10,754 / 11,729 / 13,164 / 14,601 / 16,753
NAME / 562 / 673 / 826 / 899 / 1,246
OCEANIA / 559 / 576 / 747 / 905 / 1,123
S ASIA / 65 / 99 / 86 / 102 / 42
SE ASIA / 1,639 / 1,844 / 2,256 / 2,955 / 3,498
SSA / 542 / 844 / 958 / 629 / 814
LATAM / 765 / 806 / 659 / 1,025 / 1,545
Total / 53,210 / 55,687 / 62,918 / 74,982 / 89,132
Trade Flows – Discussion
In general, the previous tables show that there is a very high value of trade each year in staple food products, and there are some important trends to highlight. Table 24 presents the trade balances from the previous tables and shows the overall trade balance for these products in the regions, where a negative balance indicates more imports than exports. It shows that East Asia, the EU27, NAME and South Asia are in deficit by value for these products. This does not mean that there is food scarcity in these regions, since domestic production, other food trade and the nutrient value of the foods are not considered here. What it does show is that Sub-Saharan Africa is in overall trade deficit, and that the large surplus for fish is outweighed[3] by deficits for rice and wheat. East Asia is a major net importer for most food products considered here, particularly fish, meat and oilseed. NAME countries are only net exporters in fish, and the CIT are net exporters particular due to significant exports of wheat.