Trading Food

This synthesis report analyzes the policy responses of countries and regional organizations in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Southern Africa to the 2006–08 global food prices crisis. It assesses these responses in terms of economic sustainability and their impact on trade and regional integration, arguing that short-term emergency measures often conflicted with long-term food security and production goals.

• The 2006–08 food crisis was driven by a convergence of supply-side factors, including climate-related production deficits, reduced stock levels since the mid-1990s, rising fuel prices, decreased agricultural land, and changes in developed countries' trade policies and subsidies. Demand-side drivers included income growth in emerging countries like China and India, the biofuels market, and increased global meat consumption.
• Many countries responded to the food crisis with short-term, fast-acting, and cheap trade policy measures to secure domestic supplies and lower consumer costs. However, these measures often neglected medium- and long-term needs to increase production and could discourage food sellers by reducing their potential net income.
• In Latin America, policy responses included consumer-oriented safety nets, such as the distribution of basic staples and cash, and producer-oriented measures like reducing taxes and providing subsidies for inputs like fertilizer and seeds. Some countries, particularly in the ALBA grouping (Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Bolivia), linked food security to 'food sovereignty,' favoring strong national production and trade protectionism.
• Southeast Asian countries' responses varied by their trade position: net rice exporters like Thailand and Vietnam initially used export restrictions and built up reserves, while net importers like the Philippines and Indonesia reduced import duties and promoted self-sufficiency. The report notes that the ASEAN Emergency Rice Reserve (AERR) was largely ineffective during the crisis, holding only 87,000 tons of rice.
• Southern Africa experiences a more permanent state of food insecurity, with the 2006–08 crisis acting as a peak in a wider ongoing crisis. Regional responses focused on the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) and the SADC's plan to build a 500,000-ton physical reserve of white maize, wheat, sorghum, rice, and livestock over three years.
• Regional cooperation mechanisms in the analyzed areas were generally perceived as lacking credibility and played a minimal role in managing the food crisis. In Southeast Asia, the crisis even prompted some countries to consider a 'rice cartel' through an Organization of Rice Exporting Countries, which undermined regional solidarity.
• Climate change is expected to increase the vulnerability of agriculture due to more frequent and severe extreme weather events. Tropical regions are predicted to be the most negatively affected, with rising sea levels specifically threatening food-producing coastal areas like the Mekong Delta in Vietnam.
• The report distinguishes between 'food self-sufficiency,' which emphasizes domestic production for consumption, and 'food self-reliance,' which focuses on the overall availability of food from any source, including international trade. The author argues that self-reliance is economically sounder as it allows countries to use comparative advantages.

APA

Veiga, P. D. M. (2010). Trading Food. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/trading_food.pdf

Chicago

Veiga, Pedro da Motta. Trading Food. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2010. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/trading_food.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Veiga |first1=Pedro da Motta |title=Trading Food |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=August 2010 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/trading_food.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{veiga2010trading, author = {Veiga, Pedro da Motta}, title = {{Trading Food}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2010}, month = aug, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/trading_food.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }