The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets presents commodity market issues in an objective and accessible way to policy-makers, commodity market observers and stakeholders interested in agricultural commodity market developments and their impacts on countries at different levels of economic development.

This edition of The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets focuses on how markets can bring us closer to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. SOCO 2020 offers a detailed analysis of the major global trends in agri-food markets and trade to identify how to reap economic, environmental and social gains and spur overall development. The report makes an important contribution to the debate on how well-functioning markets can contribute to inclusive economic growth and sustainable development. SOCO 2020 discusses policies, innovative mechanisms and digital innovations that can promote the participation of developing countries and smallholder farmers in global value chains. The report also looks at policy responses to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food value chains, both nationally and globally.

Sustainability standards are gaining importance in global markets, especially for high-value products with established links to global value chains. Growing consumer demand for sustainability certified products has resulted in increases in the share of agricultural land under sustainability certification. About one-quarter of the global coffee and cocoa areas are certified through sustainability standards developedby non-governmental organizations and the private sector. The market providesinformation in terms of prices. Harnessing the market mechanism to also provide information on how food is produced and on the benefits this brings to the environment and society, can address the trade-offs between economic, social and environmental objectives.

Agriculture is one of the main economic occupations in the world. In essence, more than 600 million farms provide income and employment for billions of people, while producing food and raw materials for a growing and increasingly affluent population.
About 90 percent of these farms are estimated to rely predominantly on family labour, occupying 70–80 percent of global farmland and producing about 80 percent of the world’s food in value terms. Most of these family labour farms are small – about 70 percent of the 600 million farms worldwide are equal to or smaller than one hectare and operate 7 percent of total agricultural land.