The statistical information in this issue of The State of Food and Agriculture has been prepared from information available to FAO up to April 2001.
The following symbols are used:
- = none or negligible (in tables)
... = not available (in tables)
$ = US dollars
The following forms are used to denote years or groups of years:
1996/97 = a crop, marketing or fiscal year running from one calendar year to the next
1996-97 = the average for the two calendar years
Unless otherwise indicated, the metric system is used in this publication.
"Billion" = 1 000 million.
Figures in statistical tables may not add up because of rounding. Annual changes and rates of change have been calculated from unrounded figures.
The FAO indices of agricultural production show the relative level of the aggregate volume of agricultural production for each year in comparison with the base period 1989-91. They are based on the sum of price-weighted quantities of different agricultural commodities after the quantities used as seed and feed (similarly weighted) have been deducted. The resulting aggregate therefore represents disposable production for any use except seed and feed.
All the indices, whether at the country, regional or world level, are calculated by the Laspeyres formula. Production quantities of each commodity are weighted by 1989-91 average international commodity prices and summed for each year. To obtain the index, the aggregate for a given year is divided by the average aggregate for the base period 1989-91.
The indices of trade in agricultural products are also based on the base period 1989-91. They include all the commodities and countries shown in the FAO Trade Yearbook. Indices of total food products include those edible products generally classified as "food".
All indices represent changes in current values of exports (free on board [f.o.b.]), and imports (cost, insurance, freight [c.i.f.]), expressed in US dollars. When countries report imports valued at f.o.b., these are adjusted to approximate c.i.f. values.
Volumes and unit value indices represent the changes in the price-weighted sum of quantities and of the quantity-weighted unit values of products traded between countries. The weights are, respectively, the price and quantity averages of 1989-91 which is the base reference period used for all the index number series currently computed by FAO. The Laspeyres formula is used to construct the index numbers.
