World Grain - August 2019 - 6

FROM THE EDITOR

A noteworthy celebration

s the ties that bind the world's
nations together fray under
the tension of trade disputes
and protectionist policies, a special
ceremony on June 12 at the Japanese
Embassy in London celebrated one
organization's seminal contribution to
promoting global agricultural free trade.
The nearly 200 people attending the
ceremony raised their champagne glasses to toast the 70th anniversary of the
International Grains Council (IGC), a
London-based intergovernmental organization that continues to successfully
carry out its mission to further international cooperation in grains trade,
promote expansion openness and fairness in the grain sector and contribute
to grain market stability and enhance
world food security.
It was an honor to be invited to this
gala event, which featured notable grain
industry leaders from every continent.
Arnaud Petit, executive director of
the IGC, told the gathering that in the
last 70 years the IGC has extended its
coverage to monitor trade in 16 commodities, including food staples. Currently, the IGC provides daily cost and
freight prices for more than 200 routes,
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grains and oilseeds.
"All this information enhances transparency in international markets and
supports policy decision-making processes," he said. "Through the IGC
Grains Conference, the organization
has also developed a platform of regular dialogue between the public and private sectors."
The IGC's growth in recent years also
has included joining the Secretariat of
the Agricultural Market Information
System (AMIS), an initiative that was established at the request of the agricultural
ministers of the G20. It covers four crops
- wheat, corn, rice and soybeans - and
aims to promote food market transparency and the coordination of policy action
6

in response to market uncertainty.
As a magazine that for 37 years has
covered the global grain industry, we at
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obtain accurate and insightful crop information, particularly in less developed
countries. Nobody does this better than
the IGC, and with each passing year the
Council seems to expand both the number of crops it includes in its reports as
well as the types of statistics it provides
on these grains and oilseeds.
In times like these, organizations like
the IGC become even more important as
their work emphasizes the importance
of transparency and free trade in a sector
that cannot thrive without them.
Speaking at the IGC Conference earlier that day, Rabobank's Stefan Vogel
made a case for why free trade of agricultural products will become more vital in
the coming years and why it's imperative
that the countries now engaged in trade
wars reach lasting agreements that will
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trade is increasingly following patterns
of comparative advantage, with exports
taking place from regions with abundant
land and natural resources to regions with
scarce land and water availability and
booming populations. In other words, the
gap between the haves and the have nots
in grain production is widening.
"Expect trade to become more and
more important rather than less important over the next decade," Vogel said.
As the importance
of trade grows, so will
the role of the IGC and
its mission to further
international cooperation in grain trading
and enhance world
IRRG VHFXULW\ :H DUH FRQ¿GHQW WKH RUganization will rise to the occasion, just
as it has for the last 70 years.
Arvin Donley
Editor

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WORLD GRAIN (ISSN 0745-8991) Volume 37, issue 8,

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World Grain - August 2019

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