Food Economy between Globalization and Geopolitics

International researchers will meet with representatives from politics and business in Halle (Saale), Germany, from 21 to 23 June for the IAMO Forum 2017. The focus of this year’s Forum will be on “Eurasian Food Economy between Globalization and Geopolitics”.

At the conference ongoing research and different strategies to ensure food security and intensify trade in the context of geopolitical tensions and divergent trade integration efforts in Eurasia will be discussed.

Thomas Glauben, Director of the conference host, the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), explains: “Changing globalization strategies and geopolitical reorientations do have an impact on the international food economy.

At the IAMO Forum 2017 we want to discuss the different strategies individual Eurasian countries use to meet these challenges and how they manage to be or to become globally competitive.” The three days conference program includes three plenary sessions, eighteen parallel sessions and a podium discussion.

The IAMO Forum 2017 will be opened on 21 June with the plenary session “The Changing Face of Globalization – How Does it Challenge the Eurasian Food Economy?” Keynote presentations will be held by Bernard Hoekman, Director of Global Economics at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies in Florence, Italy, Roman Mogilevskii from the University of Central Asia, and Natalya Volchkova, Professor of Economics at the New Economic School in Moscow, Russia, and Policy Director of the Centre for Economic and Financial Research (CEFIR).

The plenary session on the second conference day will focus on the question “Geopolitical Conflicts and Macroeconomic Downturns: How Can the Global Food Economy Deal With it?”. Answers will be given by Bettina Rudloff from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin, Federica Saliola from the World Bank, Josef Schmidhuber from the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), and Xiaobo Zhang, professor of economics at Peking University, People's Republic of China.

On the final conference day Shenggen Fan, Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), will hold an introductory keynote on “Fit for the Future – Innovative and Sustainable Eurasian Food Chains” followed by a panel discussion. Panelists are scientists as well as representatives from politics and business. Hermann Onko Aeikens, State Secretary of the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ivonne Julitta Bollow, Director International Affairs in the Corporate Communications & Public Policy division at METRO AG Wholesale & Food Specialist Company, IAMO researcher Linde Götz, Mehroj Fayzilov from Uzbek Food Holding, Sergey Sidorsky Minister of Industry and Agroindustrial Complex at the Eurasian Economic Commission (ECC), and Olga Trofimtseva, Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine.

The IAMO Forum 2017 is organized with technical support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and in partnership with the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations (OA). The German Research Foundation (DFG), the Leibniz ScienceCampus “Eastern Europe – Global Area” (EEGA), the Leibniz Research Alliance “Crises in a globalised world” and the city of Halle (Saale) financially support the conference.

Press accreditation
Media representatives are very welcome at the IAMO Forum 2017. We would be glad to schedule interviews with experts at the conference for you. If you are interested in attending the event free of charge please email the following address by 16 June 2017: presse@iamo.de

IAMO Forum 2017
Eurasian Food Economy between Globalization and Geopolitics
21 – 23 June 2017 | Halle (Saale), Germany
http://www.iamo.de/forum/2017
#iamoForum17

About IAMO
The Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO) analyzes economic, social and political processes of change in the agricultural and food sector, and in rural areas. The geographic focus covers the enlarging EU, transition regions of Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe, as well as Central and Eastern Asia. IAMO works to enhance the understanding of institutional, structural and technological changes. Moreover, IAMO studies the resulting impacts on the agricultural and food sector as well as the living conditions of rural populations. The outcomes of our work are used to derive and analyze strategies and options for enterprises, agricultural markets and politics. Since its founding in 1994, IAMO has been part of the Leibniz Association, a German community of independent research institutes.

Media Contact at IAMO
Britta Paasche
Public Relations
Tel.: +49 345 2928-329
Fax: +49 345 2928-499
presse@iamo.de
http://www.iamo.de/en

http://www.iamo.de/forum/2017 – IAMO Forum 2017
http://www.iamo.de/en – Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO)