or Republic of Korea during a corresponding period of their ascent as manufacturing powers (UNCTAD, 2005).
     With China already achieving basic calorie requirement levels (accepting the regional and socioeconomic-based in­equalities in such an aggregate measure), there is likely to be a further rise in demand for livestock products, oil crops, vegetable oils, fruit and vegetables (FAO, 2002b) and with the boom in home construction for wood. In India there is a lag of a decade or so, as compared to China, in the changes in the pattern of consumption. There is still scope for increase in consumption of basic calories and an increase in per capita food consumption at the bottom of the eco­nomic scale, though above that consumption patterns have changed. Some of the boom in demand is negative, as in the case of demand for wildlife products in East and South­east Asia for food and medicine, which has driven the illegal wildlife trade in the region (World Bank, 2005a).
     Both Japan and Republic of Korea have substantially protected rice markets. But for other agricultural commodi­ties, including fishery and meat products and vegetables, they present large and growing markets. Recently, however, Japan has reduced levels of protection. There, however, are still issues of further reducing tariffs, enabling existing ag­ricultural producers to shift to other livelihoods and also enhancing supply of environmental services.
     Overall in Asia, the dietary pattern is changing not only towards higher value foods but also to the use of semi-pro­cessed and processed food stuffs, which are more convenient even for home cooking and even towards more consump­tion of food outside the home (Popkin, 1993). The last trend is particularly influenced by the large-scale entry of women into the non-home-based labor force. Within the ESAP re­gion, Australia and New Zealand are both large agricultural exporters. They are among the Cairns group of countries that press for free trade in agricultural commodities. They are joined by Thailand and Vietnam, both of which are ef­ficient agricultural producers.
     The other major players are the developed economies of North America, Europe and Japan. Their policies have affected the trade prospects of Asian countries in many ag­ricultural commodities. They were all substantial importers of sugar, but subsidized production of corn-based and beet-based sugar have changed the picture. Since the early 70s, US sugar imports have declined from more than 5 million tonnes per year to just more than 1 million tonnes per year. While Japan's sugar imports have fallen from 2.5 million to 1.5 million tonnes per year, the EU has changed from a net importer of 2.5 million tonnes in the early 1970s to a net exporter of 5 million tonnes (Mitchell, 2005) at the lower price created by its subsidies, thus further undermining the price received by farmers and producers in developing coun­tries (Robbins, 2003).
     Countries, however, are not the only actors in the re­gion. Trade policies themselves are influenced by the various lobbies in the countries. Even WTO policies are influenced by corporate interests, which maintain substantial lobby­ing presences at WTO headquarters in Geneva (ActionAid, 2006).
     Corporations, particularly the big multi-national corpo­rations, influence economic decisions in the region not only through their lobbying with governments and international

bodies, but also through their economic practices. Production is more and more being organized in global value chains, as mentioned in the introduction to this chapter. Agricultural commodities, in particular, are organized in what are called buyer-driven or retailer-driven value chains. The big food re­tailers and producers have substantial influence over prices that are paid to producers of primary agricultural commodi­ties at the end of the value chain. In their product markets there is oligopolistic competition. The price pressures of this competition are passed on to the producers through lower prices. It is competition among producers with no better alternative, which enables buyers to gain lower prices from small producers (Singer, 1950).
     Concentration is not only a factor among buyers in agri­cultural product markets. It is also increasing in agricultural input markets (UNCTAD, 2006b). But the entry of China's national agricultural research organizations and small seed producers in India, both in Bt cotton, has increased competi­tion in some input markets (Fukuda-Parr, 2007).
     Consumers have recently entered as policy makers in international markets. Particularly in developed countries, consumers and consumer lobbies have become more active in demanding certain standards. This is sometimes reflected in improved SPS standards, some of which have become contentious issues between developing and developed coun­tries. There are also other standards, environmental stan­dards, for which consumers have shown a willingness to pay a premium on standard prices and include organic food, shade coffee and certification of sustainably harvested wood products.
     A study by the International Trade Centre (ITC) of UNCTAD and the WTO surveyed the European market for organic foods and beverages. A major conclusion of the study was that demand for these products is growing rapidly (see 3.4.5) and that insufficient supply rather than demand is the problem for these markets (Kortbech-Olsen, 2001). There is also a growing demand for organic foods in the ur­ban centers of many Asian countries, though it is still quite limited. China's production of organics under the Green La­bel was close to $12 billion, which almost matches the size of the US market, the largest organic market in the world (IFAD, 2005) India's exports of organics was just about $15 million, though a lot of organic production is consumed lo­cally and not marketed outside the locality.
     There are also other forms of consumer standards, as the Forest Stewardship  Council (FSC)  certification.  The certification is expected to be based on environmental and community-role criteria. The "Bird Free" symbol of "Shade grown coffee", again, certifies the non-destruction of forests to cultivate coffee. These certification systems provide for some premiums on price.
     Unlike consumers and consumer lobbies, producers' as­sociations have not had the same impact. In the first few post-WWII decades, marketing boards for many agricul­tural commodities, such as coffee and cocoa, tried to con­trol prices and reduce outputs. But the weaknesses of these opposition from buyers' lobbies and the spread of produc­tion outside export quotas (e.g., Vietnam's entry into world coffee markets) undermined the boards. The post-WWII experience would lend itself to the hypothesis that changes in the location of production cannot be managed through