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9th APEC Food Security Ministerial Meeting

Trujillo, Peru | 18 August 2024

  1. We, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers responsible for Food Security, met in Trujillo, Peru, on 18 August 2024, chaired by Mr. Angel Manuel Manero Campos, Minister of Agrarian Development and Irrigation of Peru, reiterate our commitment to the APEC Food Security Roadmap Towards 2030, focusing on strengthening regional food security and contributing to achieving open, fair, transparent, productive, sustainable, resilient, innovative, and inclusive agri-food systems. In this regard, we recall that in 2023 the APEC Leaders recognized that there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to agricultural sustainability.


  2. APEC economies welcomed the participation of representatives from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC). We likewise appreciate the role of APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) as Vice Chair of the Policy Partnership on Food Security (PPFS) which enables, encourages, and fosters dialogue between the public and private sectors.


  3. In line with the APEC 2024 theme “Empower. Include. Grow.”, discussions at the PPFS during Peru's host year focused on the priority “Sustainable growth for resilient development”. This priority reinforces the commitment of the 21 member economies to the Putrajaya Vision 2040, including through the implementation of the Aotearoa Plan of Action. Thus, we continue to promote these efforts and those aimed to ensuring lasting food security and improving nutrition for all.


  4. Acknowledging the increasing food insecurity and malnutrition challenges globally, we recall The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2024 Report, which found that between 713 and 757 million people, or around one in eleven, may have faced hunger in 2023, and that global prevalence of undernourishment has persisted at nearly the same level for three consecutive years. Therefore, we reaffirm our intention to support and improve access to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food to ensure food security in the region, while also addressing environmental challenges, including climate change, and promoting biodiversity conservation as well as the sustainable use and management of natural resources.


  5. Consequently, we support and encourage research and innovation to improve food security and nutrition, increase efficient agricultural productivity, and exchange of context-specific best practices and exploration of cooperative opportunities among APEC economies, broader regional collaboration, and engagement with international organizations, civil society, and the private sector. 


  6. We support the context-specific development and utilization of digital and innovative technologies, such as smart farming, agricultural biotechnology, data analytics, Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things, e-certificates, and food packaging to reinforce food security. The utilization of appropriate technologies should enable producers to better meet consumers’ needs, increase efficiency, productivity and profitability, prevent and reduce food loss and waste (FLW), and enhance resilience throughout the agri-food systems. To this end, we encourage policies and measures that promote investments in research, innovation, and capacity-building, using scientific approaches considering risk-related factors, as appropriate.


  7. We recognize the vast natural resources available in the APEC region and reaffirm the importance of their sustainable use. We encourage APEC economies to ensure strategic policies and approaches, aimed at improving their agri-food systems to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change, preventing and reducing the impacts of natural disasters, conserving biodiversity, considering relevant data and information, as well as traditional and Indigenous knowledges, as appropriate, to achieve food security in the APEC region.


  8. In that sense, we recall the Principles for Achieving Food Security Through Sustainable Agri-food Systems in the APEC Region, which promote sustainable, inclusive, reliable, and resilient agri-food systems supporting food security, environmental conservation, maintenance of livelihoods and resulting in socioeconomic benefits for current and future generations. To achieve this, our agri-food systems need to be productive and make the best use of the existing resources in each of our economies.


  9. We recognize the essential role of fisheries and aquaculture in contributing to sustainable economic growth, ensuring global food security, and addressing climate change. We also continue to support the implementation of the APEC Roadmaps on Combatting Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing; Marine Debris; and Small-Scale Fisheries and Aquaculture to ensure the secure and sustainable contribution of the fisheries and aquaculture sectors to global food security.


  10. We recognize the vital contribution of trade to achieving food security by ensuring food availability, accessibility, utilization, and stability across the APEC region. We encourage economies to continue their efforts to implement the rules-based, non-discriminatory, open, fair, inclusive, equitable, and transparent multilateral trading system, with the World Trade Organization (WTO) at its core. This includes promoting sustainable and inclusive growth, ensuring predictable markets, removing unnecessary barriers to trade to ensure WTO compliant policies and measures, that agricultural goods and services flow as smoothly and predictably as possible and minimizing market distortions to facilitate agri-food trade, including inputs, that boost regional food security and nutrition in line with WTO agreements. We also emphasize the importance of trade facilitation in our efforts to integrate micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) into the global agri-food trade system, including through technical assistance and capacity building.


    Regarding the outcomes of the 13th WTO Ministerial Conference on agricultural reform, we remain committed to engaging constructively in pursuing significant reforms as an important pathway to advancing global food security.


  11. We stress the critical role of investment in infrastructure that can sustainably facilitate food access, distribution, and availability. We encourage a business environment for investment in transport, connectivity, logistics, food packaging and other enabling services to improve farming and market linkages, especially in remote and rural areas within the APEC region. In this regard, we encourage economies to consider policies and approaches that will foster the development of quality infrastructure to build sustainable and resilient agri-food systems that will ensure the achievement of food security in the region.


  12. We encourage economies to continue to adopt inclusive policies and approaches that integrate food producers, including small-scale producers, into domestic and global food supply and value chains; recognizing that technical assistance and capacity building are important to help them meet international standards and apply context-appropriate innovative techniques and technologies to improve productivity and competitiveness. We are committed to promoting economic inclusion and growth, focusing on the development and empowerment of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), women and other groups with untapped economic potential, such as Indigenous Peoples, as appropriate, people with disabilities, and those from remote and rural communities including, where relevant, their organizations. We also support the role of youth in the agri-food system and encourage the sharing of knowledge and experiences to make recommendations on how APEC members can unlock the economic potential of people within the APEC region.


  13. We promote and support the private sector’s role in PPFS, including through ABAC, and emphasize the importance of collaboration between the public and private sectors in addressing current and future challenges, with a particular focus on strengthening food security across the region.


  14. As FLW remains a priority regional issue with considerable economic, social, and environmental costs that increase food insecurity, we encourage multisectoral efforts to prevent and reduce FLW through comprehensive policies and initiatives across the agri-food system. We therefore welcome the Principles for Preventing and Reducing Food Loss and Waste in the APEC Region for their potential contribution to the implementation of current and future APEC projects addressing FLW. On the same page, we recall the achievements of the 2014 APEC Action Plan for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and encourage economies to continue implementing APEC projects focused on FLW prevention and reduction.


  15. We note the work on food security, food safety, FLW prevention and reduction, and other outcomes from the 9th APEC Food Security Ministerial Meeting, the meetings of the Policy Partnership on Food Security, the Agricultural Technical Cooperation Working Group, the High‐Level Policy Dialogue on Agricultural Biotechnology, the Ocean and Fisheries Working Group, and the Food Safety Cooperation Forum.


  16. We thank Peru for its cordial hospitality and for hosting a successful 2024 APEC Ministerial Meeting on Food Security. We also welcome the Republic of Korea to host the 2025 APEC Ministerial Meeting on Food Security.