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Uruguay: committed to achieving food price stability

20 September 2012, Rome - Uruguay's Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining of Uruguay, Roberto Kreimerman, met yesterday with FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva at the Organization's headquarters in Rome.

During their meeting, Graziano da Silva and Kreimerman agreed on the need to address volatility of global agricultural prices. The Director-General noted the importance of existing international coordination mechanisms for the stabilization of commodity prices.

For his part, Kreimerman described Uruguay's experience in the area of cooperatives, highlighting the need to strengthen the industrialization of agricultural products. "A greater complementarity and diversification of the work of cooperatives in the production of food products are key factors of the Uruguayan experience in this field", the Minister said.

Graziano da Silva agreed with the Minister that the industrialization of primary products is a strategy that can contribute to the stabilization of international prices and highlighted Uruguay's vast experience in fields such as dairy and meats.

Another issue addressed by the Director-General and Minister Kreimerman was Uruguay's experience in tracking information on the purchase and sale of private land. In this regard, the Director-General noted that "Uruguay has a very sophisticated and advanced information system on land purchase and sale operations". He stressed the importance of sharing this experience in discussions on the Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment which take place in the framework of the Committee on World Food Security.

Finally, Graziano da Silva and Kreimerman addressed the issue of South-South cooperation, highlighting Uruguay's extensive experience in agricultural issues as "soil seeding", soil management and biofuels. The Director General underlined FAO's role in facilitating such activities and referred to Uruguay's experience in the field of dairy products.