Outlook in Brief

Agriculture has experienced a number of severe shocks in recent years with record high oil prices, commodity price spikes, food security fears and resultant trade restrictions, not to mention the most serious global economic recession since the 1930s. The greatest impact has been on the poor, especially in developing countries, with the world’s hungry now estimated at over 1 billion people. Agriculture has shown remarkable resilience, particularly in the OECD area, with strong supply response to high prices and with continuing, albeit dampened, demand growth during the crisis. In 2010, a degree of normalcy has returned to many markets with production closer to historical levels and demand recovering. Still, many governments remain concerned about the potential for a repetition of significant shocks to such key factors as energy prices, exchange rates, and/or the macroeconomic performance of key countries and regions, and about the consequences that such shocks have on market volatility.