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Commodities as a Development Issue

Auteur: Irfan ul Haque
Editeur: Irfan ul Haque
Lieu:
Année: 2004
Pages: 8
Mots-clés: -Distributeurs de produits alimentaires -Gestion de l’offre -Prix des produits agricoles -Recherche -Transformateurs de produits agricoles

"The Monterrey Consensus highlights the need to mitigate the consequences of low and
volatile revenues from commodity exports. As noted by the UN Secretary-General in his first
report on the "Implementation of and follow-up to commitments and agreements made at the
International Conference on Financing for Development", as many as 38 developing countries
are dependent on a single commodity for more than 50 per cent of their export income, while 48
countries depend on only two. Price fluctuations have not diminished and the price levels of
some important commodities have fallen to historically lowest levels.
In discussing the “commodity problem”, it is important to dispel the notion of “gloom
and doom” that has come to be associated with commodity markets. The fact is that
commodities, even under depressed market conditions, continue to provide comfortable earnings
to traders, processors, and other intermediaries in the value chain from primary production to
final consumption. There are also a number of commodities that have benefited from significant
technological advances in productivity, quality improvement, and product- use, and enjoy good
prospects for further technological growth."