Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS): State of Play

1. Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS): State of Play AMIS First Meeting of the Rapid Response Forum 11 April 2012 Mexico City Abdolreza Abbassian, AMIS Secretary

2. Presentation Outline • Quick overview • Progress • Latest on statistics & country balances

3. Quick Overview: Objectives • Improve agricultural market information, analyses and forecasts at both national and international levels • Report on abnormal international market conditions including structural weaknesses, as appropriate • Strengthen global early warning capacity • Collect and analyse policy information, promote dialogue and international policy coordination • Build data collection capacity in participating countries

4. Structure & Process

5. Work Plan & Outputs • September 2011 • Official launch of AMIS (Rome, 15-16 September): Adoption of AMIS’ Terms of Reference and Rules and Procedures, as well as a working document outlining Secretariat outputs • December 2011 • Launch of the AMIS Web site (www.amis-outlook.org) • Expert Meeting on Market Indicators, AMIS outputs and Work Programme (19-20 December, Rome) • February 2012 • First meeting of the AMIS Information Group (Rome, 9-10 February) will discuss informational channels, data requirements, methodology, and data input mechanisms • April 2012 • First meeting of the Rapid Response Forum (Mexico City– April 11) to review the progress made since the AMIS inception meeting in September 2011

6. Expert Meeting on Market Indicators, AMIS outputs and Work Programme, Rome, 19-20 December 2011 • Purpose: • To clarify the concept and definition of abnormal international market conditions and to work towards the development of a set of indicators to measure such movements • To discuss & propose AMIS outputs, operational issues and work plan • Main Outcome: • Develop a strategy for a review of indicators, in terms of their quality or performance • Identify thresholds for abnormal market conditions that may have implications for global food security • Monthly bulletins to be published on AMIS website from 2012 • A “baseline assessment” on capacity building to be carried out in order to define needs (which kinds of information) and priority countries, trying to make clear division between capacity building activities under AMIS as compared to other initiatives (i.e. the Global Strategy)

7. CONTACT INFORMATION: AMIS-Secretariat@fao.org Tel: +39-06-57052057 Fax: +39-06-57054495 www.amis-outlook.org

8. Inception Meeting, Rome, September 15 - 16, 2011 • Recognizing that AMIS is a work-in-progress initiative, the meeting: • Adopted the “terms of reference” and “rules of procedures” •  Agreed on a working document on the Secretariat outputs •  Elected the Chair of AMIS for one year • Appointed the Secretary of AMIS • Selected a logo • Decided to launch AMIS website

9. Work Plan & Outputs • September 2011 • Official launch of AMIS (Rome, 15-16 September): Adoption of AMIS’ Terms of Reference and Rules and Procedures, as well as a working document outlining Secretariat outputs • December 2011 • Launch of the AMIS Web site (www.amis-outlook.org) • Expert Meeting on Market Indicators, AMIS outputs and Work Programme (19-20 December, Rome) • February 2012 • First meeting of the AMIS Information Group (Rome, 9-10 February) will discuss informational channels, data requirements, methodology, and data input mechanisms • April 2012 • First meeting of the Rapid Response Forum (Mexico City– April 11) to review the progress since the AMIS inception in September 2011

10. …. Work Plan • June-December 2012: Capacity Building • Assess capacity development needs in member countries, in coordination with relevant regional organizations • Prepare a manual defining best practices and methodologies for agricultural market data collection and analysis • Hold a series of country/regional training sessions to enhance data collection capacity and to assist in the development of methodologies for food market outlook • Identify, design and implement special projects, aiming at enhancing data collection, analysis and outlooks

11. Statistics Commodity Balances An integrated, open-source platform to strengthen collection analysis and dissemination of food market-related data • Handles and harmonizes multiple data sources (national and international) • Enables data comparison • Helps to enter and calculate commodity balance data • Facilitates data download • Includes tools to link national and international databases through the Internet

12. Envisaged AMIS Network and Data Exchange Upload data using the commodity balance data entry tool Upload/retrieve data using smartphones UMTS and GSM networks Online connection Mobile devices Country X Server Country Y Server USDA Server AMIS Server Upload/retrieve data via automated email @ web services to exchange data between the AMIS server and AMIS stakeholders’ servers From Excel spreadheets

13. Latest situation on Commodity Balances & next steps Current status (as of April 2012): G20 participants and two out of seven invited countries have registered with AMIS Statistical Tool Three countries have modified/input historical data EU provides monthly data on regular basis and in March reported its first forecasts for 2012/13 Next Step: All AMIS participants are requested to complete the historical (2000/01-2011/12) data by 16 April In early May all AMIS participants will be asked to input/send their first forecasts for 2012/13 with deadline of mid-May AMIS Secretariat will validate the input data by end-June 2012 The validated data to be accessible to public on the AMIS website from July 2012 Review of the process/progress to be reported for discussion at the next Market Information Group meeting, to be held in Rome in late September/early October 2012