FAOstat Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

SUMMARY

FAOSTAT gives users access to food and agriculture data for over 245 countries and territories. Additionally, it covers all FAO regional groupings from 1961 to the most recent year available. Users are able to select different indicators from a variety of different domain groupings including Production, Investment, and Trade.

The data team uses FAOSTAT for a number of series including SeriesAgCropExportQuantityFAOTrade, SeriesAgFishExportsAqMammalsFAO, and SeriesAgFishProdMealFAO to name a few. To pull data, please follow the instructions below.

GENERAL STEPS TO PULL DATA FROM FAOSTAT

Step 1.) Navigate to the homepage of FAOSTAT

Step 2.) Near the top of the page, click on the tab labeled "Data"

FAOSTAT Homepage

Step 3.) A page will pop up with a number of different domains, click on the one your series is in

List of Domains

VARIABLE EXAMPLE: SeriesAgMeatImportValueFAOTrade

Step 4.) SeriesAgMeatImportValueFAOTrade in IFs is under the "Trade" category, select this to bring down a menu

Select the Domain

Step 5.) Click on "Crops and livestock products", a new page will appear

Select the Database in Domain

Step 6.) Under "Countries" on the right hand side, select "Select All"

Select (All) Countries

Step 7.) Under "Years" on the left hand side, select "Select All"

Select (All) Years

Step 8.) Under "Elements" on the right hand side, select "Import Value"

Select the Element

Step 9.) On the bottom left side, next to the tab "Items", select "Items Aggregated"

Click Items Aggregated

Step 10.) Next to the section "Crops and livestock products > (List)", click on the > button to bring down a list of different variables

Click the Dropdown arrow

Step 11.) Scroll down and select "Meat and Meat Preparations + (Total)"

Select the Variable

Step 12.) Scroll down and select "Download Data"

Click "Download"

Step 13.) An Excel sheet will download. Now you can format the data to upload it into IFs. To import data into IFs, please follow the instructions found in the Importing Data (general instructions) page.

STEPS FOR PULLING FROM FISHSTATJ- FAO'S FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE DATABASE SOFTWARE

Step 1. To pull data from FAO's Fisheries and Aquaculture Statistical Time Series software, FishStatJ, navigate to https://www.fao.org/fishery/en/topic/166235

FAO FishStatJ Download Page

Step 2. Scroll down the page until you reach <Installing FishStatJ v.4.02.08 (November 2022)>. Under <Download FishStatJ>, click on the desired operating system to download the software. This example will use the Windows version.

NOTE: Make sure your Windows version is compatible with FishStatJ before downloading. FishStatJ is compatible with Windows 10; 64-bit version; it cannot work with Windows 32-bit.

FAO FishStatJ Download

Step 3. After installing, go to your downloads and right click on <FishStatJ_4.02.08_Installer> and click <Open>.

FishStatJ under Downloads

Step 4. The following permission window will pop up. Click <Yes> to finish installing and lauch.

FishStatJ installation permission pop-up

Step 5. FishStatJ will immediately launch at this point. The <Workspaces Manager> page should also open automatically after launching.

FAO's FishStatJ mainpage

Step 6. Select the desired workspace, then click <Download> on the right side. This example will pull data from <FAO Global Fish Trade Statistics>.

FishStatJ Workspaces Manager pop-up

Step 7. The following page will populate. Click <Next> two times, then click <Finish>.

FishStatJ Workspace Download

FishStatJ Workspace Import

FishStatJ Workspace Import Finish

Step 8. The <Dataset Browser> page will then pop up. You can select to have the dataset by partner country or all partners aggregated. This example will select <All partners aggregated>. Click <OK> on bottom right of page to open up the dataset.

FishStatJ Dataset Options

Step 9. The following page will populate. There are a variety of functions in FishStatJ that can be used to organize data. Hovering over the various icons above the dataset will give options like <Each dimension can be detailed, group or aggregated>, <Change sort order>, etc. Data can also be organized by hovering over <Data> and then selecting from options like <Filter<, <Aggregate>, <Columns>, <Sort>, <Custom Groups>, etc.

FishStat Data Organization Options

Step 10. To change column dimensions, hover over <Data> then select <Columns>. Select the dimension desired (<Commodity> in this example) and then select the text under <Concept>. Click on <Edit>.

FishStat Column Dimension Options

Step 11. The following window will pop up after clicking <Edit>. To the right of <Concept>, select the desired group from the dropdown menu. This example uses <FAOSTAT group>. Then, click <OK>. Finally, click <Apply and Close>. The dimension in the data should change immediately.

A note on aggregation: Most fish data in IFs is disaggregated into different types of fish based on the FAOSTAT group. However, it is not necessary to use that aggregation group when it concerns fish trade data from FishStatJ.

FishStat Column Dimension Options

Step 12. To export the data, click on <File> in the top left corner, then select <Export Selection (CSV file)...> OR use command Ctrl + S. Name the CSV file then save it into an appropriate place.

NOTE: Null values in FishStatJ will download automatically as 0 in Excel. Make sure to take note of actual zeroes before downloading.

FishStatJ Final Dataset

Step 13. Opening up the CSV file in Excel will formulate the following page. Make sure to save the file as an *.xls or *.xlsx to prevent any possible data loss.

FishStatJ Excel File

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

For Crop and Livestock data, we are currently only looking at items with CPC codes that have "F" in front of them. TCL is the label given to trade data domain in FAOSTAT.

The following states are included in FAOSTAT countries, but we do not have them in Ifs Countries. You will need to copy and paste the data from the below dissolved states into their new states (The general rule about merging data between current states and their former dissolved states is whichever state that inherited the capital city has the right to claim data from its former dissolved state):

• Sudan (former) --> Sudan
• Yugoslav SFR --> Serbia
• Czechoslovakia --> Czech Republic/Czechia
• Ethiopia PDR --> Ethiopia
• Serbia and Montenegro --> Serbia
• USSR --> Russian Federation

*Note: When you pull Crude Materials Nes for Import or Export Quantity, the indicator will pull twice in this same document with two different element codes (5607 and 5610). You will see countries with 1961-2021 back-to-back for each. We are looking for element code 5610, not 5907, because 5907 does not have units (which should be in Tonnes).

The following tables are how we have aggregated FAO TCL data (what is classified as Crops, what is classified as Meat):

FAOSTAT TCL AGGREGATION TABLE IMG 01

FAOSTAT TCL Aggregation Table IMG 02

FAOSTAT TCL Aggregation Table IMG 03