Issued by the 11th APEC Food Security
Ministerial Meeting
Hangzhou,
People’s Republic of China, 26 August
2026
APEC ministers and senior
representatives from 21 APEC economies are turning to
technological innovation, including artificial intelligence
(AI), to strengthen every link of the region’s food supply
chain, from farm production to rural
development.
Convening for the 11th APEC Food Security
Ministerial Meeting in Hangzhou on Tuesday, ministers and
senior representatives stressed that resilient food supply
chains underpin the region’s well-being and economic growth
amid mounting disruptions.
“Food security is
fundamental to human survival. The domestication,
cultivation and cross continental spread of food crops has
underpinned human survival, reproduction and civilization
progress,” said Liu Guozhong, Vice Premier of China,
opening the meeting.
“APEC produces nearly half of
the world’s food and is indispensable to global food
security. However, we should be aware that elevated threats
from natural disasters have brought uncertainty to food
production, we need to stand up to new challenges
together,” Liu added.
The Asia-Pacific accounts for
47
percent of global disaster-related
agricultural losses, with natural hazards and extreme
weather disrupt planting calendars, damage harvests and
alter soil compositions, leaving some farmers unable to grow
the crops they always have.
Advertisement – scroll to continue reading
Ministers pointed to the
use of data and AI to help predict risks and improve
adaptive agricultural practices as conditions shift. The
same tools that are science and evidence based, they said,
can strengthen water, soil and forest management to help
farmers produce more with fewer resources and less
emissions.
Economies also highlighted the need for
trade-facilitative technologies to be integrated along the
entire supply chain, including biosecurity and customs,
cold-chain logistics and traceability systems so that
nutritious food reaches consumers faster and
safer.
Discussions also underscored the need to cut
food loss and waste, a step that can make food more
affordable and accessible across the region. From the
production and post-harvest to retail and consumption,
ministers pointed to better public education, data
monitoring and AI as ways to reduce waste and get more out
of every harvest.
The meeting stressed the need to put
farmers and rural communities at the center of agricultural
modernization, ensuring that locally adapted technologies
lift incomes for farmers, increase employment in rural areas
and competitiveness of small-scale
producers.
Ministers emphasized the need for stronger
investment and access to financing to improve
infrastructure, public services and digital resources in
rural areas, ensuring new technologies deliver practical
solutions for the farmers and communities who depend on
agriculture.
“The concurrence of climate change,
supply chain disruption and multiple challenges have
confronted the food security of the Asia-Pacific region.
APEC economies are neighbours with diverse agricultural
conditions and interlinked interests. It is a shared duty
and mission of all APEC members to ensure the region’s
food security,” said Zhang Zhu, China’s Minister of
Agriculture and Rural Affairs, also the Chair of APEC
Ministerial Meeting on Food Security.
Food security
underpins everything else the region builds, ministers
noted, calling for closer collaboration between researchers,
farmers, entrepreneurs and policymakers to bring science and
technology into every link of the food supply chain,
guarding against disruptions still
ahead.
