A food balance sheet presents a comprehensive picture of the pattern of a country's food supply during a specified reference period. The food balance sheet shows for each food item - i.e. each primary commodity and a number of processed commodities potentially available for human consumption - the sources of supply and its utilization. The total quantity of foodstuffs produced in a country added to the total quantity imported and adjusted to any change in stocks that may have occurred since the beginning of the reference period gives the supply available during that period. On the utilization side a distinction is made between the quantities exported, fed to livestock, used for seed, put to manufacture for food use and non-food uses, losses during storage and transportation, and food supplies available for human consumption. The per caput supply of each such food item available for human consumption is then obtained by dividing the respective quantity by the related data on the population actually partaking of it. Data on per capita food supplies are expressed in terms of quantity and - by applying appropriate food composition factors for all primary and processed products - also in terms of caloric value and protein and fat content.
Data revision: 2025-10-16
Supplemental Information:
Coverage: Most crop and livestock products, including processed products, under agricultural activity.
Unit of measure: Total Population - Both sexes [1000] Production Quantity [1000 t] Import Quantity [1000 t] Stock Variation [1000 t] Export Quantity [1000 t] Domestic supply quantity [1000 t] Feed [1000 t] Seed [1000 t] Losses [1000 t] Processed [1000 t] Other Uses non-food [1000 t] Tourist consumption [1000 t] Residuals [1000 t] Food [1000 t] Food supply quantity [kg/capita/year] Food supply [kcal/capita/day] Protein supply quantity [g/capita/day] Fat supply quantity [g/capita/day]
Time coverage: 2010 - 2023
More detailed information on this dataset is provided in the FAOSTAT metadata.
Citation:
FAO. [YYYY (year of last update)]. [Name of database: Name of dataset OR Name of database]. [Accessed on [DD Month YYYY]]. [URL] Licence: CC-BY-4.0
Contact points:
Resource Contact: FAO Statistics Division (ESS), Crops, Livestock and Food Statistics Team
Metadata Contact: FAO Statistics Division (ESS), Crops, Livestock and Food Statistics Team
Data lineage:
Source data
The main source is official statistics from FAO member countries. Exceptionally, unofficial data are also used as well as estimated/imputed data. In both cases this is "flagged". Data are recorded as countries report them, except for eliminating obvious errors. The source data can originate from surveys, administrative data and estimates based on expert observations. Which type of source is used by countries affect significantly reliability and comparability of data..
Data collection method:
FAO collects data from national competent authorities through the Crop and Livestock Production and Utilization questionnaire. At national level data generally comes from sample surveys, but there are also cases where administrative records are used, see further country specific metadata.
Base period: Not applicable
More information on data validation, imputation, regional aggregation, use of statistical classifications, data revision policies and practices are provided in the FAOSTAT metadata.
Resource constraints:
As per FAO Policy on Open Data Licensing for FAO Statistical Databases, this work is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC-BY 4.0). By using this database, you agree to be bound by the terms of this license and the FAO Statistical Database Terms of Use (https://www.fao.org/contact-us/terms/db-terms-of-use/en/)
Online resources:
Download data from FAOSTAT
FAOSTAT metadata source
