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This publication presents illustrations and commentary designed to facilitate the common interpretation of standards in force regarding the quality, sizing, tolerances, presentation, and marking of table grapes by inspection authorities and professional bodies responsible for the application of standards relative to trade in this product.

This study catalogues the treatment of farmers within the tax and social security systems of a large number of OECD countries – knowledge of which has been very scarce up to now. The conceptual basis for deciding what constitutes a concession conferring financial benefit to the farmer is discussed and estimates of the values of those concessions are reported in the few cases where they have been found. Many different types of taxes are covered including income taxes, taxes on property, (annual or on transfer by death or sale), and taxes on goods and services, as is preferential treatment in social security contributions or entitlements. In all, twenty four countries are covered. The different measures are analysed from the point of view of their likely impact in distorting production and trade, and how they may affect structure and asset values in the sector. Finally, the report indicates that fuller integration of farming into economy-wide, social safety nets or tax systems could be more efficient, effective and equitable than sectoral approaches in tackling instability or low incomes in farming.

This review of taxation in agriculture in 35 OECD countries and emerging economies outlines the diversity of tax provisions affecting agriculture, provides an overview of cross-country differences in tax policy, and confirms the widespread use of tax concessions specifically for agriculture, although their importance and modalities differ across tax areas and countries. Potential effects on innovation, productivity, and sustainability in the agricultural sector are also discussed.

China’s food processing sector has arrived at a decisive stage. While primary agriculture has continued to expand at an astounding pace and final consumers have experienced an extended period of rapid income growth, progress at the intermediary stage, the agro-processing sector, has remained limited. Today, a growing need to catch up with these developments has become manifest, but a number of challenges have emerged simultaneously. They include the need to adjust to increasingly diversified consumer demands, to improve the quality and nutritional content of foods, to introduce new food products, to shift to more sophisticated processing methods, to adopt innovative packaging methods, and to comply with new labelling requirements. These developments give rise to a number of questions. What do these changes mean for China’s food processors? Is China’s agriculture adequately prepared for these changes? How can farmers take advantage of these changes? What structural adjustments are needed to meet the challenges arising from the changes in domestic and international food markets? The papers in this Proceedings document try to answer these and many other important questions revolving around changes in, and challenges for, China’s agro-processing sector.

This study takes an in-depth look at the arable crops sector in OECD countries and draws some conclusions about the impacts of agricultural support policies, trade liberalisation, agri-environmental payments, and agri-ennvironmental regulations. It contains economic and structural data, agri-environmental indicators for the arable crops sector, and analysis of the policy measures supporting arable crops farming and addressing environmental issues both at the aggregate country level and regional levels. This is the third in a series of in-depth studies being undertaken by the OECD to investigate the linkages between agriculture, trade and the environment. The first study on the pig sector was published in 2003, and the second study on the dairy sector was published in 2004.

In an era of declining budgets, governments are seeking more efficient and cost-effective means of delivering fisheries services. These developments raise a number of significant policy questions. How much do governments spend on managing fisheries? Who pays for the fisheries management services? Who actually delivers the services? How effective are the services in meeting their objectives? These questions are addressed in this report which examines the costs of managing fisheries in OECD countries

This OECD study takes an in-depth look at the dairy sector in OECD countries in order to see how agricultural subsidies and environmental policies are impacting the environment and international competitiveness of dairy products.

The Development Effectiveness of Food Aid: Does Tying Matter? provides a detailed look into two food aid issues. First, the study assesses the effectiveness of the various ways in which food aid can promote food security and poverty alleviation. Second, the study demonstrates that food aid in-kind carries substantial efficiency costs, conservatively estimated as at least 30% on average. In contrast, most local purchases or regionally sourced imports are relatively efficient ways of providing food aid. Thus, there is scope for considerable efficiency gains by switching to less restricted sourcing of food.  The study therefore argues that, in most circumstances, financial aid (cash) is the preferable way to fund direct distribution of food or to provide budgetary support for general development or project assistance.

This report examines how public stockholding policies related to rice in Asia can influence domestic and international markets. Following a review of the working of rice public stockholding programmes in eight Asian countries (Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, the Philippines and Thailand), the report examines the impacts of these programmes over the medium term (2018-2030) and analyses how these impacts would change should the selected countries collectively set their public stocks to either a low or high level. Results show that the strongest impacts would occur during the three-year transition period when countries adjust their public stocks to the new levels, but that there would also be structural impacts over the medium term, although at a lower intensity, on procurement, domestic and international prices, availability, private stock levels, and public expenditure. In the event of a global production shock, the model projects that the immediate impact on prices and availability would be less severe under the high public stock scenario, but that recovery would be faster and public expenditure lower when countries hold smaller public stocks.

Rebuilding fisheries is a key challenge for many countries as some stocks are in a poor state while others are depleted.  In May 2009, economists, biologists, fisheries managers and policy makers participated in an OECD Workshop on the Economics of Rebuilding Fisheries. The workshop was designed to identify and analyse economic uncertainties, policy issues, biological conditions and information constraints, and to review the role of key players in program delivery. This conference proceedings presents an overview of the major economic and institutional issues associated with rebuilding fisheries and provides examples of national and international initiatives.

The agro-food sector in OECD countries is heading towards an era of turbulance and transition. With food demand in developing countries growing, barriers to trade and investment falling, and consumer tastes and preferences rapidly diversifying, the landscape of OECD food markets will be radically different 20 years from now. Are food shortages likely and what will happen to food prices? What changes will we see in food retailing and food processing? Will there be more co-operation between the various players in the agro-food industry, more concentration or more competition? To grasp these challenges, this report looks into the prospects for the agro-food sector to 2010-20 and examines the new generation of key issues that lie ahead for governments, business, farmers and consumers.

Almost one in four people in OECD countries is currently obese. This epidemic has far-reaching consequences for individuals, society and the economy. Using microsimulation modelling, this book analyses the burden of obesity and overweight in 52 countries (including OECD, European Union and G20 countries), showing how overweight reduces life expectancy, increases healthcare costs, decreases workers' productivity and lowers GDP. The report makes the urgent economic case to scale up investments in policies to promote healthy lifestyles and tackle this growing global public health problem. The book evaluates a number of policies which could significantly improve health outcomes while being an excellent investment for countries.

Agricultural trade disputes over issues such as beef hormones and genetically modified organisms have received wide public attention and illustrated the trade-off between domestic and international policy objectives. This report examines pertinent issues at the interface between domestic policy objectives, technical regulations and agricultural trade. It also discusses approaches to measuring the trade impacts of food safety and other technical measures, and presents empirical evidence concerning the trade effects of resolving controversial food safety issues.

Concerns about the cost of implementing and monitoring agricultural policies are mounting with the development of more decoupled and targeted policies. While these costs are inherent in the policy process, reducing them will bring benefits in terms of better use of public funds, and minimising the overall economic costs of policies. The report suggests ways to do so without compromising the aims of the policies. Ways to reduce costs include sharing experiences across agencies, regions or countries, exploiting already existing administrative networks, integrating government and private information systems, reducing the number of agencies and using the latest information technologies.

This report contributes to the discussion of interconnections between scarce resources by highlighting the nexus between land, water and energy (the LWE nexus). It focuses on a dynamic, integrated, and disaggregated analysis of how land, water and energy interact in the biophysical and economic systems. The report provides projections for the biophysical and economic consequences of nexus bottlenecks until 2060, highlighting that while the LWE nexus is essentially local, there can be significant large-scale repercussions in vulnerable regions, notably on forest cover and in terms of food and water security.
 
The analysis is based on coupling a gridded biophysical systems model with a multi-regional, multi-sectoral dynamic general equilibrium modelling assessment. Numerical insights are provided by investigating a carefully selected set of scenarios that are designed to illustrate the key bottlenecks: one scenario for each resource bottleneck, plus two scenarios that combine all bottlenecks, with and without an overlay of climate change.

The Fisheries Manager's Handbook is a compilation of OECD work designed to aid policy makers develop and implement good policies and management tools in fisheries.  Drawing upon years of OECD research, it demonstrates how an open policy design process with clear objectives, using market-based instruments and focussed on effective stock management can benefit all those involved in or concerned about the fisheries sector.  Of interest not only to policy makers, it will provides a useful guide to NGOs and other interested parties on the principles and processes of good policy design.

This study takes an in-depth look at the pig sector in OECD countries and draws some conclusions about the most appropriate forms of policy intervention. It argues that liberalising trade is likely to generate some environmental benefits.

This report provides insights on the political economy of biodiversity related policy reforms. It draws on existing literature and four new case studies covering the French tax on pesticides, agricultural subsidy reform in Switzerland, EU payments to Mauritania and Guinea-Bissau to finance marine protected areas via conservation trust funds, and individually transferable quotas for fisheries in Iceland. Each case study focusses on the drivers of reform, the types of obstacles encountered, key features of the policy reform, and the lessons learned from the reform experience.