There is more than enough food produced in the world to feed everyone, yet 815 million people still go hungry every day. Moreover, global population is projected to rise to around 10 billion by 2050. In order to fight hunger and feed an extra two billion people in 2050, food production will need to increase by 50 percent.
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The European Commission and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have strengthened their partnership to boost the resilience of millions of people struggling with severe and often prolonged or recurrent food crises around the world. The agreement for €70 million contribution, signed by Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, Neven Mimica, and the Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, José Graziano da Silva, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York today, contributes to the Global Network against Food Crises to promote sustainable solutions to food crises.
Consumer expectations and demands have a role to play in improving food safety in Africa, according to speakers at an event in Brussels this week. The briefing in the Belgian city was organized by the ACP-EU Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation, with the European Commission (DG DEVCO and DG SANTE), the ACP Secretariat, CONCORD and the Global Food Safety Partnership (GFSP).
With an agri-food trade value of €255 billion in 2017, the EU confirms for yet another year its position as largest global exporter and importer of agri-food products. EU exports of agri-food products reached €138 billion in 2017, representing an annual increase of 5.1%. With imports at a value of €117 billion, the EU has a net trade surplus of €21 billion in its agri-food trade, according to the 2017 annual agri-food trade report published today.
The South African Sugar Association (SASA) is aiming to conquer the UK market to adapt to the end of EU sugar quotas, which came into force on 1 October last year. The reform has made the EU less attractive for raw sugar exports from the rainbow nation, one of the cheapest producers in the world.
As part of its mission to raise quality standards of fish in our country, the Ministry of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Maritime Economy, through the National Bureau for Sanitary Control of Fishery Products (ONSPA), this week handed over two ice-making factories and a cold storage facility to the Jasmin Trading House company, the only fish factory satisfying the required health standards during a recent visit by EU experts, with the aim of strengthening the company.
European Commission-funded, FAO-led partnership will help African, Caribbean and Pacific countries shift from wildmeat to alternative sources of animal protein. A €45 million multi-partner programme launched on Tuesday 10 October at FAO seeks to help African, Caribbean and Pacific countries halt unsustainable wildlife hunting, conserve their natural heritage and strengthen people's livelihoods and food security. Funded by the European Commission, the seven-year programme is an initiative of the African Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP).
Europe will remain an important supplier of agricultural goods in the future but the greatest untapped potential lies in Africa, which could become the “bread basket” for the rest of the world, the president of Yara, a multinational fertiliser and crop nutrition company, told EURACTIV. Svein Tore Holsether also said digital technologies like precision farming were the best way to boost agricultural production. “While we still see the potential for increasing productivity and sustainability of European agriculture, the greatest potential we see is in Africa,” Holsether pointed out. “Today €29.6bn ($35bn) is spent every year on importing food, while there is a great untapped potential for higher productivity as the continent holds 65% of the world’s arable land,” the fertiliser company boss said.