5/31/ ESS, FAO

5/31/20162  The Supply Utilization Accounts (SUAs) are the core statistics of a statistical framework for food and agricultural commodities.  Can be a powerful tool for making the best use of available statistical information in formulating plans for developing the agricultural sector.  Contribute to support the mandate in the Article 1 of the FAO Constitution.  Establishing such a system will also help to pinpoint many inconsistencies in the statistical series, leading to a better recognition of the need to improve statistics on food and agriculture. 5/31/2016ESS, FAO2

5/31/20163 ESS, FAO3 The SUA was conceived as an statistical system for the whole agricultural sector (crop, livestock, fisheries and forestry) Input-output matrix Intermediate consumption Commodity and country aggregates quantities monetary value nutritive values

5/31/20164 ESS, FAO4 Production Trade Utilization Resources land fertilizers pesticides machinery Integrated system Quantities Producer prices Retail prices Import / export unit values Nutritive values

5/31/20165  Incomplete development of the system 1. Full integration of all sectors 2. Producer and retail prices 3. Input prices 4. Global food accounts (energy)  Preparing SUAs is not simply a “routine” or “data input” exercise  It is a complex exercise with several interlinked steps requiring knowledge and expertise  The system was developed, step by step, over a long period of time  Present system is very labour intensive. The number of staff available to support this system is now less than half compared to 20 years ago putting huge pressure on the remaining staff and compromising the quality of eth resultant data 5/31/2016ESS, FAO5

5/31/20166  A SUA consists of elements that are basic or essential such as:  production,  imports, exports and  domestic use, and those that are supplementary such as:  animals slaughtered,  harvested area or seeding rate  Elements classification:  Official data  Estimated data  Balance or remainder data SUA elements 5/31/2016ESS, FAO6

5/31/20167 ◦ Production and trade data are part of the ongoing national official statistics collected annually by ESS ◦ Feed, seed, waste, processing for food and non food products and others utilization are elements estimated in the current system when FAOSTAT is updated. The estimation in general is based in the international technical conversion factors available ◦ Food available for consumption and stock variation are derived as residuals 5/31/2016ESS, FAO7

5/31/20168 World wide response rate to the FAO production questionnaires by geographic region

5/31/20169 Comments  There is a lack of coordination with the focal points multiple data producers at country level.  The commodity list is too detailed.  There is a lack of statistical estimation methods for missing data:  In FAO Statistics Division  The trend data  Repeat previous year’s data  In general in the developing countries:  The most frequent methods are: 1. Eyes estimation method 2. Ceiling estimation method

 Data collection and data exchange with electronic files (150 countries)  Joint data collection exercise with UNSD and OECD  Mirror data used to estimate missing data  Data file format issues  Data quality issues especially for quantity data (not priority of customs departments which are the main collection point) Trade Statistics 5/31/2016ESS, FAO10

FAO-Trade data availability in FAO working system 5/31/2016ESS, FAO11 Repor ting count ries

Crops Primary and derived Commodities 5/31/2016ESS, FAO12 CropsPrimaryProcessedTotal Cereals & Products Roots, Tubers and derived Products71118 Sugar crops & products42024 Pulses & products11213 Nuts & products10616 Oil-bearing crops &products Vegetables & products Fruit &products Fibres Of Vegetable Origin13518 Spices909 Stimulant crops51015 Tobacco13619 Beverages044 Total

Livestock Primary and Processed Products 5/31/2016ESS, FAO13 Livestock Primary Processed Total Products from Slaughtered Animals Products from Live Animals Hides &Skins Other livestock products Total Main Problems Avalilability of official data Reliability of conversion factors

 In FAO Statistics Division  The trend data  Repeat previous year’s data  Seed: Whenever a seed rate is available the figure of the next year’s Area Sown will determinate the amount of Seed of the product (ies. Seed of yr1 = Area Sown of yr2 * Seed Rate).  In cases where no data is provided by the country for Area Sown or Area Harvest these figures will be estimated using the extraction rate of neighbouring countries as indicator of the level of the extraction rate. The same can apply also to the seeding rate figure  Waste does not contain the household wastage.  Processing for food: several processed commodities may be derived from the combination of more than combination  Other utilization can contain amount used for biofuels, alcohol, etc, Estimation methods and others points 5/31/2016ESS, FAO14

 Food. Data here refer to the total amount of the commodity available for human consumption during the year.  Food is one of the most important elements in SUAs if not the most important. The practice used for estimating food supply as a residual should, however, be supplemented by comprehensive household food consumption surveys in order to provide a cross- check on food availability in a country.  Stocks variation is the recommendation of FAO Methodology as data on stocks is very rare in the countries.  No stock data is requested from or reported by countries.  This is a weak point in the current system. Food and Stock Variation 5/31/2016ESS, FAO15

In summary: Key Issues  Preparing SUAs is a complex exercise with several interlinked steps requiring knowledge and expertise.  Quality of national data sources  Problems in data collection; improving of the communication channels with the countries  Large number of commodities, especially processed food  Many variables estimated  Reliability of conversion factors; Problems in obtaining/updating parameters for estimation  Validation and revision of data mostly manual, not automated

5/31/ T hanks for your attention. 5/31/201617ESS, FAO