In 1984, New Zealand introduced important policy reforms in order to address major macroeconomic and fiscal imbalances. New Zealand's support to agricultural producers rapidly decreased from 30 percent of the value of production to about 2 percent, and has remained the lowest among OECD...

Japan, with a population of about 125 million, is a major importer of agricultural products. Japan's mountainous topography limits the area available for farming, with a total cultivated land area of around 4.8 million hectares. Farm holdings are small, averaging just over 1.5 hectares. Japan...

In addition to trade liberalization, other factors have contributed to the strong growth of red meat production in Canada since the end of the 1980s. In particular, the outbreaks of foot and mouth disease (FMD) in Taiwan and in South Korea eliminated two competitors in the Japanese market. This...

In recent years, as a result of a strong demand for energy and other natural resources, Russia's economy has experienced impressive growth. Russia's re-emergence as a political and, particularly, economic power have allowed it to increase policy support to its agricultural sector. Russia's size,...

This 2008 report provides an economic overview of the Canadian agriculture and agri-food system. It is meant to be a multi-purpose reference document to provide: an introduction to the agriculture and agri-food system; a snapshot of structural changes that are occurring throughout the system in...

With a population of about 1.1 billion, India is expected to overtake China as the world's most populous country by 2030. India's economy ranks as Asia's third largest, after Japan and China, and is now one of the world's fastest growing. While growth has led to significant reductions in...

Agricultural policies in both Europe and the United States provide commodities with an excessively high and distorted pattern of support. The economic interdependencies of the policies give rise to adverse fiscal and economic costs, which are viewed as disharmonies in the existing policy...