According to the AgriGator portal, a few minutes ago, the voting for the new director of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) ended, in which the former Deputy Minister of Agriculture of China and a member of the Communist Party of China Qu Dongyu won a landslide victory. In this position, he replaces José Graziano da Silva, Brazilian, who led FAO for two terms and eight consecutive years from 2011 to 2019.
More than half of the countries voted for China - 108 out of 194. France's Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle, the former head of the country's agriculture ministry, supported by European Union countries, received 71 votes. Least of all - 12 votes, won Davit Kirvalidze, the former Minister of Agriculture of Georgia. Thus, the victory went to the representative of China in the first round. more than half of the participants voted for him.
Interestingly, the most influential country and the main FAO donor, which is the United States, supported precisely the representative of Georgia, which, as a result, gained the least number of votes. The US tried to do everything possible so that the representative of China did not get the post of head of the FAO, however, since the vote was secret, it is very difficult to say exactly who was in solidarity with the United States in choosing the new director of the UN food and agricultural organization.
Given the victory of the representative of China, some participants in the 41st FAO conference expressed their opinion about a possible revision of the US plans to finance the organization. At the same time, it is likely that China, in turn, will increase funding for FAO and its programs around the world.
FAO is one of the most influential UN organizations. It employs more than 11 employees around the world and it is the world center for the accumulation of knowledge about agriculture and the food industry. FAO also actively collaborates with other UN agencies on various issues related to food safety, public health, sustainable development, the environment and other aspects related to agriculture and the food industry. One of FAO's key goals is to create a world free from hunger by 500. Today, more than 2030 million people are facing hunger, and many experts doubt that the FAO target for 800 can be achieved.
Source: https://www.fruit-inform.com/