FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION
OF THE UNITED NATIONS
The 25th Meeting of the FAO/OEA-CIE/IICA Working
Group on Agricultural and Livestock Statistics
for Latin America and the Caribbean
Collecting and Compiling Food and Agricultural
Prices in Latin America and the Caribbean:
Current Status and Future Directions
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 10– 12 November 2009
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION
OF THE UNITED NATIONS
Importance of Agricultural Price Statistics
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Production planning
Trade and Investment decisions
Economic analysis
Compilation of national accounts
Formulation, monitoring and impact assessment of
policies
• Agricultural income is an important source of livelihood
in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION
OF THE UNITED NATIONS
FAO price datasets
• FAO provides datasets of prices at different levels
 Producer prices (FAOSTAT)
 Wholesale/Retail prices (GIEWS)
 World market prices (EST - Commodity Price Database)
• Different databases at FAO that serve different purposes
 FAOSTAT => support macro-economic analysis
 GIEWS => food security monitoring and action
 EST - Commodity Price Database => market analysis
• But, these datasets are not yet integrated
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION
OF THE UNITED NATIONS
Key characteristics of GIEWS price dataset
• Coverage:
 13 LAC countries, 2 of which do not report to FAOSTAT
(annual price questionnaires)
 market prices, mainly retail but also wholesale prices
 selected markets, in few cases national averages available
 monthly prices, starting in most cases in 2006
• Pros and cons of this alternative database versus FAOSTAT
– better timeliness (pro)
– wider geographical coverage (pro)
– wholesale prices on few commodities (con)
– lack of national averages (con)
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION
OF THE UNITED NATIONS
Current Status of Agricultural Price Statistics
in Latin America and the Caribbean
• Moderate response rate from LAC to FAO questionnaires
(approx 14 annual responses = 50%)
• Decreasing trend in reporting
• Inadequate data coverage
• Some countries cannot compile annual national averages
although data collection takes place
• Many countries do not collect producer prices at all
• Lack of availability and poor quality of metadata
• FAO datasets disseminate mostly raw prices, while no
derived indicators are developed yet
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION
OF THE UNITED NATIONS
Constraints in producing food and agricultural
price data in Latin America and the Caribbean
• High cost of data collection and lack of resources
• Technological and methodological constraints
• Lack of adequately trained technical staff to undertake
processing
• Limited coordination amongst various institutions
• Problems in FAO reporting mechanism
• Insufficient emphasis on monitoring data quality
• General lack of timely availability of price data
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION
OF THE UNITED NATIONS
A new way of collecting price data?
• Does it make sense to keep collecting prices at the farmgate? Or should farm-gate prices be replaced by market
prices (rural wholesale prices)?
• Collection of disaggregated data, not national indexes?
• Quarterly transmission of monthly/quarterly data, not annual
averages?
• Collecting prices on few products specific to each countries?
• Send a questionnaire to all countries to collect:
• description of available price data and methodology
• suggestions and expectations. What are your priorities?
How do you want to proceed?
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION
OF THE UNITED NATIONS
Future Directions for Improving Price Statistics
• Developing a new methodology for price data collection
• Establishing data quality frameworks
• Enhancing analytical value of prices data (methodology to
compile and analyse derived indicators)
• Improving institutional capacities for data collection and
compilation (methodology to aggregate data at different levels
(time, geographic, item))
• Platform for integration of national datasets
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION
OF THE UNITED NATIONS
FAO technical support for Improving Price
Data Systems in LAC Countries
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Agricultural prices is one module of the new FAO
Statistical Capacity Building strategy
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Collaboration with a regional funding body: need to
identify pilot countries for each module. Countries are
invited to contact FAO.
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION
OF THE UNITED NATIONS
The Meeting is requested to provide
its views on:
• Mainstreaming food and agricultural price statistics in national
statistical systems
• Strengthening national capacities related to food and
agricultural price statistics in the region
• Key priority areas for FAO technical assistance: Data
collection? validation? analysis? dissemination? Institutional
framework?
 Opportunity to send a questionnaire to all countries to collect
metadata on price data availability and methodology, as well
as suggestions and expectations on FAO work
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION
OF THE UNITED NATIONS
Obrigado
Gracias
Thanks