Author Description

Despite increasing globalisation and liberalisation of trade production in some developing countries, the majority still depend on commodity exports as a main source of economic development. In order to achieve the the UN Millennium Development Goals, particularly that of reducing world poverty by half by 2015, major reform of commodity production and trade will be required, including broadening market access, reducing the use of agricultural subsidies, and improving both productivity and competitiveness in developing countries. This publication has been produced by UNCTAD and the Common Fund for Commodities with the aim of providing accessible data analysis on commodity production and trade which can be used by governments, industry, the media, civil society and the public at large as the basis for discussions on policy reforms.