The Moscow Office of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) hosted a press briefing dedicated to the 10-year anniversary of signing the Agreement for the establishment of the FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation and the Organization’s upcoming 80th anniversary this year.
The press briefing was held by Anna Benoit, Assistant Communication Specialist of the FAO Moscow Office.
Being a liaison office, the FAO Moscow Office also serves as a multifunctional platform for dialogue and the transfer of information, including estimates and forecasts, technical knowledge and recommendations of FAO to a wide range of Russian partners.
“Over the years, we have secured quite a stable niche as a representation of one of the vital UN specialized agencies,” Oleg Kobiakov, Director of the FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation, stated.
“FAO is the only intergovernmental organization with a global mandate for agriculture and food. By agriculture we mean not only livestock production, crop production and other segments of the “classic” agro-industry, but also fisheries, forestry, primary processing of forest products, food and nutrition security and rural development,” the head of the FAO Moscow Office highlighted.
These ten years have not been in vain. However, before the decade filled with good deeds, there was a prolonged pause in relations between the USSR – and then its successor Russia – and FAO.
Long road in the dunes of the Cold War
On 16 October 1945, the FAO Foundation Conference opened in Quebec, Canada. Out of the 45 participating countries that were the first to receive the right to initial membership, 34 became members of the Organization, signing its Constitution on the first day of the Conference. Three states officially joined FAO shortly thereafter, during a session that lasted until 1 November. Of the remaining eight, seven joined the Organization between 30 November 1945 and 1 December 1953. Only the Soviet Union, being a founder of FAO, did not exercise this right.
In November 1989, Reuters agency, in its material about the USSR’s intention to join FAO, cited an article in the Moskovskiye Novosti newspaper saying that back in the day, Soviet delegates refused to sign the FAO Constitution arguing that the “forces of imperialism” were planning to occupy key positions in the Organization and take advantage of it.
When he served as a Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Alexander Yakovenko, who up until recently was a Rector of the Diplomatic Academy, provided an explanation for that decision in an article in Rossiyskaya Gazeta dated 12 October 2005, saying that FAO membership implied the provision of a significant amount of agricultural statistics, which had traditionally been kept secret in the Soviet Union.
By the mid-1980s, especially after the start of perestroika and the advent of new political thinking in Soviet foreign policy, it had become increasingly obvious how absurd it was that the world’s largest agricultural, forestry and fishing country, a member of the UN Security Council and all specialized UN agencies, remained outside the framework of the intergovernmental organization with the global mandate for agriculture and food.
On 13 April 2006, the Russian Federation became a full member of FAO, giving a notification of acceptance of the Organization’s Constitution to its Director-General Jacques Diouf. This seemingly simple step took almost 60 years.
A list of good deeds
In addition to the annual mandatory contribution to the FAO budget, Russia makes one-time earmarked contributions as official development assistance to finance FAO-implemented projects aimed at emergency relief and technical assistance for the development of the agricultural sector in third countries.
Russia made a significant USD 10 million contribution to the operation to fight the desert locust outbreak in Africa in 2020. Russia has twice allocated funds to support and restore the agricultural sector of the Syrian Arab Republic (SAR), with the total contribution exceeding USD 12 million.
No less significant was the financing (USD 6 million) of the programme to support the school meal system in Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Oleg Kobiakov listed the project under the auspices of Rospotrebnadzor aimed at increasing capacities to combat antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, in five “near abroad” countries, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, among the landmark intellectual and technical assistance programmes.
This USD 3.3 million project was successfully completed on 31 December 2024. Negotiations are currently underway to launch its second stage, with the budget more than doubling and Uzbekistan and Mongolia joining as new participants.
Over the ten years of the FAO Moscow Office operation, the total voluntary contribution of Russia to FAO projects has exceeded USD 40 million.
The FAO Moscow Office has in its portfolio and oversees more than ten specialized activity areas. These include, for instance, the efforts to reduce food loss and waste. For example, according to FAO estimates, the loss in fisheries and aquaculture amounts to 35% of fish and fish products. At the same time, 8% of caught fish are thrown back into the water. In most cases, they are either already dead, dying, or seriously injured. This loss is comparable to the loss of three billion Atlantic salmon adults annually.
FAO consistently advocates against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing that causes considerable damage to marine bioresources. The annual volume of this poaching reaches 26 million tonnes (in monetary terms, this is almost USD 24 billion). Russia is the key partner in eliminating this practice, especially in the Pacific Ocean, which is why FAO welcomes the signing and ratification of the 2011 Agreement on Port State Measures to combat IUU fishing by the Russian government.
Eight decades of FAO: milestones of the long journey
On 16 October this year, FAO celebrates its 80th anniversary as the UN specialized agency with the global mandate in the areas of food, agriculture, forestry, fisheries and rural development.
“Our mission is to build the world free of hunger and undernourishment, where food production and agriculture contribute to raising the standard of living of everyone, especially the most vulnerable,” Victoria Kalinin, Head of Communications, FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia (Budapest), said via videoconference. “Over these eight decades, FAO has become an important player on the international stage, but despite the progress made, the problem of hunger remains unresolved.”
Having compiled the first World Food Survey based on the yield forecast of 1946–1947, FAO held a meeting with representatives of 70 countries and developed its first large-scale plan of actions. Since then, evidence-based and statistically supported food security reviews have become the FAO hallmark.
In 1952, the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) was adopted, to which 182 countries are now parties. In 1961, FAO and the UN General Assembly established the World Food Programme, currently known as WFP, which became the largest humanitarian aid agency of the UN.
In 1963, Codex Alimentarius appears, setting the international standards for food safety. Created jointly by FAO and the World Health Organization (WHO), the Codex is a collection of international standards, guidelines and established practices that ensure food safety and legality of trade in it worldwide.
In 1994, FAO and the World Organisation for Animal Health developed a global programme to eradicate rinderpest. The goal was achieved in 2011.
In 2001, the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources was adopted, which ensures access to plant genetic materials and fair distribution of benefits from their use.
In 2002, FAO, together with other organizations, eradicated onchocerciasis, or river blindness, saving millions of people in Africa from incurable blindness.
In 2015, the UN General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, setting 17 goals, most of which are directly related to the FAO mandate. This laid the foundation for further cooperation between member states and FAO in achieving the goals aimed at eradicating hunger, improving health and quality of life, and eliminating poverty and inequality.
FAO actively uses new technologies, including artificial intelligence and machine learning. FAO has modernized an agricultural information platform that gathers and analyses geospatial and statistical data, enabling informed decision-making. The platform includes 15 thematic portals dedicated to animal health, climate change, and soil and water ecosystem restoration.
“Over the 80 years, FAO has made an enormous contribution to ensuring food security and agriculture development,” Victoria Kalinin highlighted in conclusion. “However, there is still much to be done.
As Norman Borlaug, the father of the “Green Revolution”, Nobel Peace Prize winner, used to say, “you can’t build peace on empty stomachs”. We need to continue making efforts to create a system where every person has access to sufficient, nutritious and safe food. To achieve this, we have to strengthen international cooperation, implement information approaches and ensure sustainable development of the agrifood sector.”
Synergistic effect of the hive mind
The FAO Moscow Office serves as an intermediary, a guide, a transmission belt in building relations between various stakeholders involved in ensuring food security.
This idea was expressed by Dilyara Ravilova-Borovik, Deputy Head of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to FAO and other international organizations in Rome, during her videoconference speech, “You help to find partners in Russia for the projects financed by the government of the Russian Federation. You help to transfer domestic experience to other countries, including at various international venues. And in this regard, the FAO Moscow Office plays an indispensable role.”
Dilyara Ravilova-Borovik noted that thanks to the active support of the FAO Office, a National Committee for the Implementation of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030) in Russia was created in Russia. The Office supported the organization of the multistage national dialogue in preparation for the 2021 UN World Food Systems Summit. All the relevant recommendations that meet the interests of the Russian Federation are subsequently implemented, in part thanks to the FAO Moscow Office.
The representative of the Russian Permanent Mission in Rome concluded saying that taken together, “these aspects give hope that the actively developing agricultural and agrifood sector will remain one of the drivers of the Russian economy and its international economic potential.”
Vectors of partnership: EAEU, SCO and BRICS
The territorial scope of the FAO Moscow Office goes beyond Russian borders: it ensures the interaction between FAO and the Eurasian Economic Commission, working relations with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), and strengthens ties with BRICS member countries.
“BRICS countries are increasingly influencing the state of affairs in the agricultural sector and food security on a global scale,” Oleg Kobiakov noted. “We maintain contacts with each country chairing the association, with Russia and now with Brazil.” Our Office represented FAO in almost a dozen events held by the Russian BRICS Chairmanship in 2024.
FAO has repeatedly expressed its support for the project to create a BRICS grain exchange. “We believe that a certain demonopolization of price regulation in this segment of the agricultural commodity market will facilitate the stabilization of prices, their reduction, and greater predictability of the grain market,” the head of the FAO Moscow Office emphasized. “Ultimately, this will have a positive impact on food security of both participating countries and countries consuming this group of food products.”
Armed conflict is the main cause of hunger
In addition to epidemics, natural disasters, and economic shocks, particularly those caused by rising energy prices, global food security is mainly disrupted by armed conflicts. “Since the beginning of this millennium, they have turned into a formidable barrier to the elimination of hunger as a phenomenon,” Oleg Kobiakov highlighted.
Wars and local conflicts not only cause human deaths but also destroy the means of production, pastures, agricultural lands, harvested crops, and farm animals. The threat of epizootics, epidemics and waterborne diseases rises exponentially.
“Wars tend to lead to massive forced displacement of civilians, who thus become deprived of their livelihoods, especially in rural areas,” the head of the FAO Moscow Office noted. “Their support places a heavy additional burden on the areas and countries that had to take them in.”
Grain produced in Russia and Ukraine served as the main food import in most countries of North, Central and East Africa and Near East. Due to hostilities, trade and logistics flows have been disrupted. “The difficulties that have arisen are, on the one hand, physical ones with delivery routes and, on the other hand, legal ones due to sanctions against the Russian Federation,” Oleg Kobiakov said.
“It is difficult to export grain from the harvest of recent years from Russia: there is a physical threat to ships, and freight and insurance have become much more expensive,” Oleg Kobiakov emphasized. Maritime shipping routes have to be changed (taking a circuitous route around Cabo das Agulhas, Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point in Africa, instead of passing through the Suez Canal), but at the same time, “every extra mile raises the question of safety and increases the cost for the end consumer”.
Hunger hotspots
This year, 2025, FAO, together with WFP, will provide food assistance to 25 countries and territories where the state of food security can be characterized as a “crisis” and even a “catastrophe”. FAO monitors the so-called “hunger hotspots”.
There are plenty of such “spots” on the map of Africa. These are Mali, Chad, South Sudan, Sudan, and Zimbabwe, which joined the list last year. “Hunger plagues Congo and Somalia, and Ethiopia as well from time to time,” Oleg Kobiakov added, since harvest in this country, which is one of the most populated ones (126 million in 2024, or the 11th place in the world), strongly depends on the weather and climate conditions.
Haiti, which Oleg Kobiakov called “an island of bad luck”, remains a perpetual cause of concern, since “the crisis of all governance structures and complete lawlessness” have the most devastating effect on the supply of food to the population.
The situation in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank of the Jordan River, the Syrian Arab Republic, Yemen and Afghanistan is close to catastrophic. As Oleg Kobiakov emphasized, FAO plays an important role in providing emergency relief to many of these countries.
Africa is not left behind
The Russian Federation, as one of the key FAO member states, actively participates in the development of strategies and practices aimed at providing technical assistance and creating a scientific foundation in African countries. FAO follows the Russian Federation’s efforts to create a permanent platform for dialogue with the continent. Two Russia–Africa summits, which have already been held, serve this purpose.
Moreover, Russia implements its own bilateral aid programmes on the continent. These include, in particular, the free delivery of 200 000 tonnes of wheat to six African countries. “Our Office has compared these volumes with the grain balances of the beneficiary countries. Although wheat is not a staple food there, which would be legumes, it is an important part of the diet in these countries,” Oleg Kobiakov said. “The Russian wheat supply covered from 6% to 23% of the annual demand for this product in the recipient countries, which is a substantial share.”
African countries have an ambitious agricultural development programme aimed at achieving food sovereignty by 2060. This will make it possible to virtually eliminate the problem of hunger in Africa.
“Africa is a unique continent,” Oleg Kobiakov highlighted. “With adequate funding, proper resource management and the involvement of a wide range of stakeholders in agricultural development, Africa is able to not only feed itself but also become a large exporter of agricultural commodities to the rest of the world.”
Floods and droughts are the great leveller
More frequent natural disasters and successive floods and droughts pose increased risks to food security. As Oleg Kobiakov stated, these dangers are faced not only by their traditional victims: Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar, but also, strangely enough, by European countries. In recent years, floods with devastating consequences have affected Poland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and France.
African countries have traditionally suffered from drought. The countries of the Sahel region as well as South Sudan, Somalia, Angola, and Mozambique are the most affected by this problem.
Small island states, especially in the Pacific Ocean, are vulnerable to typhoons and tsunamis. “Taking into account that the average height of land above sea level of these archipelagos often does not exceed 0.5–1.0 metres, any strong storm can completely destroy the entire agricultural infrastructure of these countries,” Oleg Kobiakov noted.
Aquaculture access code
Given that “capture and artisanal fisheries have almost reached the physical limits of catch, and the share of stocks exploited at the level above their reproduction is quite large, the focus will be on aquaculture”, Oleg Kobiakov said. The future lies in farmed fish and seafood.
FAO provides technical and regulatory support in this area. For example, a set of certification rules and Guidelines for Sustainable Aquaculture have been developed. Speaking about the 2013 session of the FAO Sub-Committee on Aquaculture held in Saint Petersburg, Oleg Kobiakov particularly emphasized the following:
“This is like the World Football Cup. The right to host it is usually given to some country that is not well-developed in terms of football, so that the very fact of hosting it, the exchange platform, and the accumulated knowledge would contribute to its development. Now, from 2014 to 2024, the volume of aquaculture production in Russia increased several times and came close to 500 thousand tonnes.
If we take into account that Russia catches about 5 million tonnes, and the global trend shows that aquaculture has either reached the level of capture fisheries or surpasses it, then we still need to catch up with others. However, Russia has an advantage here: since it is playing catch-up, it can draw on the global experience, including that summarized by FAO, and use successful cases as well as negative experiences. I am convinced that this area will grow sustainably in our country,” Oleg Kobiakov concluded.
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The press briefing brought together over 40 representatives of Russian media, including leading news agencies, TV channels, newspapers and magazines, both multidisciplinary and specialized.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation is one of the six FAO liaison offices (the other offices are located in Washington, New York, Brussels, Geneva and Yokohama) and one of more than 150 FAO representations around the world.
FAO in Moscow advises and assists in the development and implementation of policies and programmes in the agricultural sector. Its partners include government agencies, public organizations, industry associations, business, and expert and journalistic communities. The FAO Moscow Office develops and maintains close working relations with federal executive bodies, such as the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Rossotrudnichestvo, Rospotrebnadzor, Rosselkhoznadzor, Rosleskhoz, Rosrybolovstvo, Rosstat, as well as with leading research and higher education institutions, such as Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy, Lomonosov MSU, HSE University, MGIMO University, Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Maurice Thorez Moscow State Linguistic University, Kazan and Saint Petersburg Agrarian Universities, Ufa University of Science and Technology, and many others.
The FAO Moscow Office also cooperates with other specialized UN organizations represented in Russia on the issues of climate, biodiversity, wildlife conservation, water and natural resource management.
Moreover, the FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation strengthens collaboration between FAO and Russian academia and research institutions as well as the private sector in order to support agriculture and food security.
The Office offers pre-graduation internships for students and postgraduates who have chosen professions related to agricultural sciences, economics and ecology of agricultural production, and organizes internships for young professionals, including at FAO headquarters in Rome.
Source https://www.fao.org/russian-federation/news/news-detail/fao-moscow-office-celebrates-its-10-year-anniversary/en
