Improving Agricultural Statistics in the COMCEC Region

Importance and Challenges of Agricultural Statistics

1.1

Agriculture in the COMCEC Region

COMCEC Member Countries cover 28 percent of total world agricultural area, but receive only

21.4 percent of world agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which in 2011 was almost

619 billion USD. Asian group had the highest amount of the agricultural GDP at 367 billion USD

in 2011. It was followed by Arab group and African group with almost 128 billion and 122

billion USD, respectively.

Agricultural commodity trade of the 57 COMCEC Member Countries increased considerably

over the period 1990-2010. In the last two decades, total agricultural commodity imports of

the COMCEC Region increased from 35 billion USD to 160 billion USD, registering a 357

percent increase. Correspondingly, total agricultural commodity exports of this region rose by

450 percent and reached 112 billion USD. As a result, total agricultural trade in the COMCEC

Region grew by almost 392 percent in the last two decades reaching 272 billion USD.

In addition to the growth of COMCEC Members’ agricultural commodity trade, its share in the

global agricultural imports increased from 9.9 percent to 14.5 percent between 1990 and

2010. Similarly, the share of agricultural commodity exports of the region increased from 6.3

percent to 10.4 percent in the same period. At the sub-regional level, Asian group had the

largest share in the COMCEC Member’s agricultural commodity exports with 74 percent in

2010. This ratio has not declined below 60 percent since 1990. As of 2010, Asian group was

followed by Arab group and African group with shares of 15.8 percent and 10.3 percent

respectively.

According to FAO’s 2011 data, the total population of the COMCEC Region is about 1.6 billion.

Although decreasing steadily from year to year, 52 percent of the COMCEC Members’

population is still living in rural areas. According to the statistics for the same year, 69 percent

of the people living in rural areas are engaged in agriculture

(Table 1)

Table 1: Share of Agricultural Population in OIC Countries and the World (%)

1990

1995

2000

2005

2011

African Group

54.1

51.1

48.1

45.3

42.1

Arab Group

40.4

36.4

32.8

29.4

25.5

Asian Group

45.1

45.6

42.5

39.4

35.7

OIC

46.8

45.4

42.2

39.2

35.5

World

46.3

44.3

42.2

40.1

37.6

Source: COMCEC, 2013.

COMCEC Member Countries’ total land area of 3.2 billion hectares is equal to 25 percent of the

world. 1.4 billion hectares, representing 45 percent of this total land is used as agricultural

COMCEC, 2013.

Ibid