62 | Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) Report

Table 2-16. Evolution of the cereals trade balance of CWANA region and other regions of the world between 1961 and 2004.

Region

1961-1965

1966-1970

1971-1975

1976-1980

1981-1985

1986-1990

1991-1995

1996-2000

2001-2004

(1,000 tonnes)

Central Asia and Caucasus

-

-

-

-

-

-

-3,456

1,173

2,357

Sout and West Asia

-1,877

-1,781

-4,221

 -4,853

-9,072

-13,095

-9,080

-14,993

-8,303

Arabian Peninsula

-536

-590

-826

-2,383

-6,215

-3,428

 -5,171

-8,875

-8,502

Nile Valley and Red Sea

-1,778

-1,956

-2,982

-5,730

-9,484

-10,214

-10,182

-12,225

-11,765

North Africa

-878

-1,700

-3,138

-5,764

-8,468

-10,580

-12,383

-14,310

-16,677

CWANA

-5,136

-6,135

-11,307

-18,789

-33,305

-37,560

-40,272

-49,230

-42,890

North America (developed)

52,500

56,731

82,219

117,290

129,712

116,448

116,031

106,382

97,821

W Europe

-29,446

-27,034

-26,121

-24,889

-1,495

18,462

23,315

16,812

3,880

EU (15)*

 

 

 

 

 

20,996

23,279

15,629

4,767

Oceania

6,705

7,060

10,465

13,546

15,889

16,881

12,744

20,905

17,782

E Europe

-5,527

-2,284

-4,703

-9,505

-3,134

-2,421

213

993

1,793

Latin America and Caribbean

2,591

4,602

550

-1,803

-1,280

-10,259

-17,120

-18,442

-17,000

Africa

261

-351

-270

-2,549

-7,122

-4,910

-11,138

-11,717

-17,838

Asia

-21,611

-34,460

-41,486

-52,344

-56,363

-60,637

-61,487

-61,328

-51,570

World

2,449

982

2,222

815

1,548

4,240

3,142

2,810

4,121

North African countries, Djibouti, Egypt, Somalia and Sudan are excluded from the Africa totals. South and West Asia, Central Asia and Caucasus, Arabian Peninsula

countries and Yemen are excluded from Asia totals.

*EU 15 exports do not include the intra-EU trade

Source: FAOSTAT

In CWANA, the total processed food exports doubled between 1961 and 2004, the highest increase realized by Turkey. However, as the other regions developed their processed food exports more rapidly than CWANA, the CWANA share in processed food exports worldwide fell from 14.3% in 1961 to 1965 to 2.7% from 2001 to 2004. The main winner in this development is Asia. China's industrialization in food now challenges the western European food processing industry. Latin America and the Caribbean also are promising challengers. In the evolution of processed food imports, the CWANA share increased from 5.7% of world imports from 1961 to 1965 to 6.6% from 2001 to 2004. Just behind South Asia and West Asia, the Arabian Peninsula is an important importer. North Africa, Nile Valley and the Red Sea also drastically increased their imports in processed foods.

2.4.1.4 CWANA in international trade of fresh fruits and vegetables

Most CWANA countries have comparative advantages in fresh fruits and vegetables. Increasing demand from developed countries for fresh produce has had a positive spillover on organizing and developing exports. Morocco and Egypt have long had an export tradition. During the last three de-

 

cades they have gained important organizational skills in this area. Turkey, Iran, Syria and Pakistan are relative newcomers, having entered the export scene in the early 1980s; their export volume, however, is increasing at a growing pace. As other regions of the world also have gained important market shares in fruits and vegetables, the CWANA world share fell from 12.2% to 8.9% between 1961 and 2004, and its annual average growth rate stayed slightly lower, 2.6%, than the annual average growth rate worldwide, 3.4%. The winners were in Asia. High growth came to China, India, Latin America and the Caribbean. Because of the high value of fruits and vegetables, North America and Western Europe have remained strong in world competition and have increased their exports with annual growth rates between 3 and 4%.

CWANA exports are not yet very significant: fresh fruit and vegetable exports from Central Asia and the Caucasus, 7.1% per year and the Arabian Peninsula, 9.5% per year. But these grew faster than exports from other CWANA subregions. Total export volumes of South Asia, West Asia, the Nile Valley and the Red Sea constantly increased, while those from North Africa trended downward during the last four and a half decades. Among the traditional exporting countries, Turkey increased its exports volume by 16 times