Trade connects agrifood systems and people.
It plays an important role in providing consumers worldwide with sufficient, diverse and nutritious food, and it generates income and employment for farmers, workers and traders in the entire agricultural and food industry across countries. Since 1995, food and agricultural trade has more than doubled in volume and calories. The use of natural resources for the production and export of food and agricultural products, such as land and water, has also increased.
In general, trade in goods and services became more important in the world economy and the share of production traded increased rapidly between the first years of the new millennium and 2008. However, this process of globalization, as measured by the share of goods and services exports in world gross domestic product (GDP), came to a halt after the financial crisis in 2008.
