Institute of

MA Market Analysis

International agricultural trade – Food security

Today, compared to 1960, the world produces three times as many agricultural products and trades six times as many. What pushes this trend? How does international agricultural trade contribute to food security, globally and regionally?

The German and European agricultural and food industries are increasingly integrated into world markets through international trade. Bilateral or multilateral trade agreements, which often involve the removal of trade barriers, contribute to this development. Some people appreciate the reduction of trade barriers. They associate them with a wider range of products and lower consumer prices. Others fear that the opening of domestic markets is accompanied by the deregulation of social and health standards.

With the help of models, we examine how changed trade relations influence the interplay between supply and demand and in particular, how this changes trade flows on agricultural markets. Our analyses show the effect of trade agreements and thus, contribute to the public debate.

The influence of international agricultural trade on prices and the diversity of agricultural products are also perceivable outside of Germany: At the international level, it can, additionally, compensate for regional food shortages. Our second priority topic, world nutrition, is, therefore, closely linked to it.

In cooperation with colleagues in developing countries, we examine how the political and structural framework for agriculture and trade can be designed in a manner that improves the income and food situation in these countries. The aim of this cooperation is not only to transfer knowledge and train scientists in developing countries (“capacity building”) but also to exchange information on current market developments in our partner countries.

In the field of world nutrition, we also analyse measures to curb global food losses in production, trade and consumption. For the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL), we are the first point of contact for issues concerning world nutrition.

Projects "International agricultural trade – Food security"

Ongoing projects

Accompanying research on the organization of deforestation-free supply chains

How can be ensured that the production of agricultural commodities is not linked to further deforestation? We analyze how deforestation-free supply chains are perceived by different market participants and how they can be actively shaped by policy.

Collaboration Initiative Food Loss and Waste

Since the establishment of the new Meeting of Agricultural Chief Scientists of G20 (MACS-G20) Food Loss and Waste Initiative in 2015, Germany took over leadership for further joint activities. First step was the establishment of an appropriate web portal with information about current research activities, latest innovations and available scientific expertise. In parallel, a kick-off workshop was organised and the position for a coordinator was established at Thünen-Institute of Market Analysis in June 2017 in order to facilitate international cooperation towards Food Loss and Waste Prevention.

Contribution of trade to sustainable development

International trade can contribute to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. This research project focuses on the role of agricultural trade to foster sustainable developments.

Fairtrade 2.0

This project analyses coffee value chains in which the coffee processing and packaging takes primarily place in the producing African country and compares them to other coffee value chains.

Food waste from households and street markets in Zimbabwe

There is evidence of food waste in low-income countries such as Zimbabwe, but there is no data for what is being wasted, how much, when and why?

Impact of Trade Agreements

Regional trade agreements, such as TTIP (Trans Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) between the EU and the USA, are under fire: for some people welcome the dismantling of trade barriers because of better market access and higher revenues; while others expect a sold-out of high social and health standards in Europe.

Preventing stored product pests in Germany

We develop optimised storage structures that combine product-specific advantages of underground hermetic storage and aspects of sustainability. The optimised early detection of insects that damage storage is also a topic.

Shaping Food Environments in Transitioning Economies

Malnutrition is contributing to the rise in non-communicable diseases worldwide. In the Global South, this affects transitioning countries in particular, where dietary habits are undergoing major changes. We are collaborating to study food environments in sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia in order to develop solutions for making them healthier and more sustainable.

Sustainability assessment of plant-based diets

In Germany, and also worldwide, there is an increased interest in plant-based diets. The sustainability of these plant-based diets, as compared to omnivore diets, is being investigated within the subproject “sustainability analysis” of the COPLANT project (Cohort-Study on Plant-based Diets).

The way tariff rate quotas influence our agricultural markets

How will the free trade agreement between the EU and Canada affect German dairy producers? Whether they can extend their exports to Canada under CETA – this is one of the questions we examine in this project.

Finished projects

Agricultural long-term policies for climate mitigation

The European Green Deal and the Farm-to-Fork Strategy highlight the importance of market-based instruments to alleviate climate change. A quantitative assessment of different instruments is crucial for successful climate policies.

Capacity Building towards Food Security

Food security exists when all people at all times have access to sufficient and nutritious food to ensure an active and healthy life. At present, for a large proportion of the world population this is not the case. Even though the number of people suffering hunger has been reduced to the half since 1995, still there are more than 2 Billion people worldwide suffering from micronutrient deficiencies. Most of these people live in developing countries.

Changing food patterns

Vegans, vegetarians, flexitarians – an increasing number of people in Germany are consuming less animal-source foods. The impact analysis of these changing dietary patterns on the German agricultural sector forms the core of this project.

CO2 footprints in the food chain (preliminary project)

The KlimaLabel preliminary project serves to prepare a main project that aims to develop robust data bases and methods for determining the carbon footprint of food in Germany and to develop recommendations for its use for a respective label.

Consumers' preferences and demand for imported poultry meat in Ghana

Many African countries import large quantities of frozen meat products such as poultry from overseas including the EU. What preferences do consumers have for poultry meat? What impact does it have on local markets in Africa, and what role do EU trade policies have? Researchers of the Thünen-Institute of Market Analysis consider those questions for the West African country Ghana.

Do free trade agreements encourage agricultural production in Eastern Europe?

Possible changes in tariff and trade policies of the EU with its eastern neighbors as well as trade between these countries change trade flows. How does this influence the agricultural sector?

FACCE MACSUR - Agriculture and Climate Change

The growing global population is requiring more food. At the same time, climate change makes agriculture a challenge many regions with a fast growing population. In this project, we develop integrated methods to make projections with models, study impacts, ways of mitigation and adaptation. These are first developed for Europe with a goal to apply the methods also in other regions.

Impact of meat and dairy exports on developing countries

German exports of livestock products to Africa are frequently criticized. We analyze how these exports actually affect domestic poultry and milk production using Ghana and Senegal as examples.

Perspectives of German animal welfare meat on export markets

Animal husbandry is increasingly criticized in Germany and voices become louder to adjust legal requirements for animal husbandry in order to improve farm animal welfare. Higher legal requirements for animal welfare would imply higher production costs with the consequence of loss of international competitiveness of German meat producers.Code of Practice for organic food processing

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