News

​The Commodities and Development Report 2015, entitled "Smallholder Farmers and Sustainable Commodity Development" was launched on 17 December 2015 on the margins of the tenth Ministerial Conference of the WTO taking place in Nairobi. The presentation of the report was preceded by an introduction by Joakim Reiter, UNCTAD's Deputy Secretary-General.

The 2015 UNCTAD Global Commodities Forum tackled new dynamics in international agricultural markets, and policy options for commodity-dependent economies in Geneva from 13-14 April.

​UNCTAD's two-day Global Commodities Forum on 13–14 April provided a platform for differing views on how best to reform Swiss commodities trading to benefit people in the developing countries where raw materials are grown or extracted.

"Transforming Commodities into Sustainable Development", will be the focus of UNCTAD Commodities Week (13-17 April 2015).

Representatives from the Swiss Government, individual trading companies and transparency advocates will discuss the current lack of publicly available information about commodity trading in Switzerland at UNCTAD's sixth annual Global Commodities Forum at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on 13–14 April 2015.

​The spectacular fall in prices for oil and other commodities since mid-2014 and what it means for resource-rich developing countries will be among key issues discussed by participants of UNCTAD's sixth annual Global Commodities Forum at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on 13–14 April.

​UNCTAD  participated in a series of meetings held in Cotonou, Benin from 9 to 11 March 2015, to mark the 10th anniversary of the European Union-Africa Partnership on Cotton and discuss implementation of the Pan African Cotton Road Map.

High prices for basic farm goods and industrial raw materials, with the complex effects that these cause on the economies of numerous poor countries, are not expected to decline any time soon, the Global Commodities Forum has been told.

Amid the complex interplay of factors affecting the production of basic farm goods and industrial raw materials, it is vital to ensure that sufficient, affordable food is available in developing countries, an expert meeting has heard.

Experts will gather on 18 and 19 March at the UNCTAD Global Commodities Forum 2013 to review what happened, and to discuss how the commodities boom can be harvested to yield better benefits for the poor as well as more durable, broad-based economic growth for developing countries.