Markets and Trade
Gender equality is essential to achieve FAO’s mandate of a world free from hunger, malnutrition and poverty. FAO is committed to achieving equality between women and men in sustainable agriculture and rural development for the elimination of hunger and poverty. The Markets and Trade Division (EST) contributes to FAO’s objective to ensure that women and men have equal rights and access to agrifood markets, trade and decent work, and equal control over the resulting income and benefits, in alignment with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
EST provides technical support to Members Countries in the implementation of evidence-based gender-responsive programmes, policies, strategies, and practices to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in agrifood markets, value chains and trade. This support includes gender analyses, gender-sensitive knowledge generation and dissemination, sharing best practices, multistakeholder dialogues, and capacity-development initiatives, among others. These activities contribute to FAO’s goal to ensure that promoting gender equality and eliminating gender-based discriminations are effectively pursued at all levels of FAO’s work programme and organizational culture, in compliance with the FAO Policy on Gender Equality 2020-2030.
Key messages
| Agrifood trade is an engine for sustainable and inclusive development,
leading to social and economic outcomes that are potentially conducive
to gender equality and women’s empowerment. |
| Gender inequalities create constraints to women’s access to domestic and
international agrifood markets and impact agricultural value chain
development, trade performance and economic growth. |
| By removing gender barriers to domestic and international trade, gender-responsive agricultural and trade policies foster a more gender-equitable trade environment and promote an inclusive market-led transformation of the agricultural sector. |
Highlight publications on gender
Gender publication collection
Production and Export of Organic Fruit and Vegetables in Asia
01/01/2005
This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions that took place during the International Seminar on Producing and Exporting Organic Fruit and Vegetables in Asia that was held in Bangkok, Thailand, in November 2003. It describes the market situation and outlook for organic horticultural products, the opportunities offered by the main import markets (North America, the European Union and Japan) and their import requirements. The publication examines the ways in which Asian countries could take advantage of potential market opportunities. Case studies on the development of the organic agriculture sector in Thailand, China and India are presented. The publication analyzes the constraints to overcome in order to successfully produce and export organic horticultural products, and discusses strategy options for the development of production and exports in Asia.