FAOSTAT Food Value Chain Domain implementation: Input Output modelling and analytical applications

The recent increasing attention to the economic and policy analysis of the food systems from international fora, public institutions and academia calls for the availability of information and data capable of informing about the interrelations across economic sectors and within value chains. The international policy agenda is pushing for a more effective application of measures at country and regional level in line with the recommendations of the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals, for which more systematic and integrated data about economic, social and environmental impacts of policies are requested. The Food Value Chain Domain recently published in FAOSTAT responds to this call. Its data and information shed light on the distribution of final domestic food expenditures across industries (Agriculture, Food Processing, Wholesale, Retail, Accommodations and Food Services) and primary factors (e.g.: Labour, Gross Operating Surplus) on the relative food value chain. The FAOSTAT Domain offers therefore robust and granular information on both the farm and the post-farm gate component of the Food Value Chain. The applied Global Food Dollar methodology, that FAO is contributing to upscale at global level, is based on Leontief decomposition approach on the Input-Output tables. Moreover, whenever the Input-Output table are not available, it is now possible to impute them from Supply-Use tables by applying a conversion methodology, developed by FAO in compliance with European (EUROSTAT), United Nations (UNSD) and international statistical standards as the System of National Accounts. This allows to extend the analysis to several African, Asian, and Latin American countries that produce on regular basis only Supply and Use Tables, and not Industry by industry Input Output Tables. The potential time and data coverage of the methodology is therefore significantly expanded. The aim of this paper is to describe the conceptual framework of the conversion methodology of Supply-Use Tables into Input-Output Tables of the Global Food Dollar methodology, and the potential implementation scope of these methodologies. Preliminary analytical findings of the applied methodologies are presented as well. The new methods and data presented in this paper, being based on data compliant with the International Statistical Standards, as the System of National Accounts, and therefore comparable across countries, associated to larger data availability, have the potential to effectively support food policies at international, regional and national level, as well as contribute to a decision making in line with the 2030 Agenda.