EEC: EAEU will develop Stock Exchange Instruments for Grains Trade

19/05/2021 21:27

Minister for Integration and Macroeconomics of the Eurasian Economic Commission Sergey Glazyev stated during the Independent Dialogue "Different Routes, Similar Goals" in support of the UN Food Systems Summit – 2021, which was held on May 18 in Moscow.

According to Sergey Glazyev, food safety is ensured in the Eurasian Economic Union. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, by the end of 2020, the Union countries recorded an increase in agricultural production by 2.3%.

"The development of the agro-industrial complex and ensuring food safety is laid down in the Strategy-2025. These are, for example, measures and mechanisms related to improving the efficiency of crop and livestock production, import substitution, the implementation of joint programs for the development of the agro – industrial complex within the EAEU," - the EEC Minister said.

At the same time, Sergei Glazyev stressed that not all countries of the world were able to avoid a critical shortage of food products.

“The calculation of the possibilities of modern agricultural technologies carried out by Moscow State University, showed that the current state of agricultural technology allows to feed more than 20 billion people - twice the population of the Earth. The problem is not that there are too many people or that there is not enough soil and effective technologies, but the lack of distribution mechanisms for agricultural commodities, ” - said Sergei Glazyev.

He named three reasons for the ineffective distribution of goods: social inequality, abuse of monopolistic position in the market by large corporations, imperfection of modern international trade, which is subject to manipulation.

To solve the global food problem, Sergei Glazyev proposed to develop a global investment program to eliminate bottlenecks associated primarily with water supply. In addition, in his opinion, it is necessary to eliminate the depressing effect of the decline in the purchasing power of national currencies and market manipulation.

“We in the Eurasian Economic Union consider the possibility of developing the stock exchange space. As the first pilot project we will develop stock exchange instruments for Grain Trade. In the future, we will try to create an international Grain Trade system that would be based on the EAEU stock exchanges and would be open primarily for African states that are faced with an aggravation of the food problem,” - said Sergei Glazyev.

Within an Independent Dialogue, the Secretary General of the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly, Andrey Belyaninov, proposed adjustments to the concept of world food safety.

“Every day around the world 25 thousand people die from malnutrition and diseases associated with hunger. So far, however, the concept of food safety has mainly focused on dietary calories rather than food quality. The time has come to make adjustments to it,” - stressed Andrei Belyaninov.

Reference

The Independent Dialogue was organized by the International Union of Non-Governmental Organizations "Eurasian Peoples' Assembly" on the eve of the 2021 Food Systems Summit, which will take place in November at the initiative of the UN Secretary General.

Representatives of government agencies, international organizations and experts participated in the discussion.

The purpose of the upcoming Summit is to call for active efforts of the world community aimed at changing the methods of food production and consumption in the world, reducing the number of diseases associated with nutrition, improving the planet and making progress in the systematic implementation of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

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