and had 2.3% of the fresh fruits and vegetables exports worldwide from 2000 to 2004.

2.4.1.5 CWANA in worldwide imports of meat

Demographic pressure in the entire CWANA region had negative effects on its international trade balance. Meat imports increased with an annual growth rate of 8.2% from 1961 to 2004, with the most significant increase in the Arabian Peninsula. Despite big increases in total meat production within the different countries, the total dependence ratio of most CWANA countries increased from high demographic pressure. As a result, CWANA is the most important meat importer in the world, just behind Asia and just before Latin America and the Caribbean. The annual average increase of total imports in the region is two times, 8.2%, the world annual average increase, 4.3%. Large increases in poultry meat production are not enough to fill this gap, which widens each year. Meat imports in the Arabian Peninsula multiplied tenfold between 1961 and 2004. Meat import volumes of the other CWANA subregions multiplied 10 to 20 times. Lebanon, Jordan and Iran in South Asia and West Asia, Algeria and Morocco in North Africa, Kazakhstan in Central Asia and Egypt and Yemen in the Nile Valley and Red Sea stand out as the most significant meat importers. All regions in the world, developing and industrialized countries, increased their meat imports during these four decades, although the annual average increase rates in industrialized regions were lower than the rates in the developing regions.

2.4.1.6 CWANA in world imports of feed

While the meat and milk imports of CWANA increase at a significant pace, government subsidies and other measures to encourage the development of livestock production in most of the countries continue. As a result, feed imports increased considerably in volume and value in most countries. While milk husbandry and poultry became dependent on feed imports, extensive transhumant animal raising still continues to prevail as the significant system in Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Morocco and Yemen as well as in the Caucasus, Central Asia and West Asia. As a consequence of importing feed in CWANA, its share in world imports increased from 0.9% from 1961 to 1965 to 7.5% from 2001 to 2004.The imports took off in the mid-1970s. Despite this significant growth, CWANA lags far behind western Europe's and Asia's shares in world imports. Western Europe had a 52% share and Asia 20% of animal feed imports from 2001 to 2004. In light of the growing need for animal feed in livestock production, the upward trend of world imports seems likely to continue, most particularly imports in CWANA.

2.4.2 Changing lifestyles, consumer preferences and demands

Urbanization is, by far, behind the changes in people's lifestyles. Economic, social, cultural and spatial factors are pushing urban families to live and to consume differently. Changes in family structure, in work, residential patterns and improvement in urban infrastructure drive many urban consumers towards standardized, industrialized and globalized consumption patterns, even if their habits and preferences are largely influenced by local tastes and traditions.

Despite these changes, enhanced by urbanization and elite urban groups, purchasing power is still the main determinant of consumption in developing countries. Food expenditures are more than 40% of household expenditures in most CWANA countries but in rural households, food expenditures can exceed 60%. In comparison, approximately 15% is spent for food in developed countries. The high ratios show the vulnerability of consumption patterns in CWANA and the importance that food has in a transition toward a market economy. If households cannot achieve satisfactory disposable income, they will rapidly be exposed to undernourishment.

Most of the countries in CWANA have human development index (HDI) numbers lagging drastically behind industrialized countries. Highly skewed income distribution, lack of rural infrastructure and poor urban districts result in unequal access to education, health facilities and healthy food. The oil-rich countries of the Arabian Peninsula have HDIs higher than those of other CWANA countries. Oman showed the most dynamic evolution, nearly doubling its HDI between 1975 and 2004. The countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus have HDIs stagnating or falling since the 1990s, illustrating how difficult it is for these countries to develop free market economies. Uzbekistan and Tajikistan seem to be the worst in terms of development. In South Asia and West Asia, all countries have HDIs around 0.71 and 0.77 except Pakistan, which has an HDI well below the CWANA average of 0.539 (UNDP, 2004). Trends from 1975 to 2004 are positive, showing a dynamic evolution for most of the countries of South Asia and West Asia. In North Africa, the lowest HDIs are in Mauritania (0.486) and Morocco (0.64), far below the world average. In the Nile Valley and Red Sea subregions, all countries have HDIs below the world average. The high disparities in the standards of living, coupled with poor rural livelihoods, reinforce the high risks concerning the food security, especially in countries with difficult living conditions-Djibouti, Mauritania, Pakistan, Sudan and Yemen.

In 1969/1970, food production within some CWANA countries was almost adequate to meet demand; the selfsufficiency ratio for all cereals was nearly 90%. However, the food gap continued to widen over the last three decades. Expanding agricultural production, 2.9% annually, failed to keep pace with the rapid growth in demand, and selfsufficiency ratios declined. According to FAO estimates, this trend is expected to continue (Alexandratos, 1995). However, throughout CWANA, undernourishment has been under control since the late 1960s. In the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Near East and Middle East, less than 10% of the population is declared undernourished. The exceptions are Pakistan and the Occupied Territories of Palestine. In the Nile Valley and Red Sea subregion, Egypt stands out as the country with the least of its population undernourished, but in both Djibouti and Sudan one-quarter of the population is undernourished and in Yemen more than onethird. Difficult economic conditions in Central Asian countries have negatively affected food security since the early 1990s. In Armenia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, one-quarter to one-half of the populations are estimated to be undernourished, according to preliminary FAO data. Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan seem to have reduced undernourishment since the early 1990s.