About Us

Who we are

The Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) is an autonomous intergovernmental financial institution established within the framework of the United Nations. The Agreement Establishing the Common Fund for Commodities was negotiated in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) from 1976 to 1980 and became effective in 1989. The first commodity development project was approved in 1991.

Governing Council

The Governing Council consists of the representatives of CFC’s Member States. It meets annually, and is attended by Member States and Institutional Members, together with observers representing intergovernmental organizations.

Governing Council meeting documents

Executive Board

The Executive Board ensures the overall management of CFC. It prepares the work of the Governing Council and sees that its decisions are properly carried out. The Executive Board meets twice a year.

Executive Board meeting documents

Consultative Committee

The Consultative Committee, composed of 9 independent experts, on technical and economic aspects of projects submitted to the Fund, is an advisory body for the Executive Board. The Consultative Committee meets twice a year.

CC meeting documents

Member States

CFC has 101 Member States and 9 Institutional Members

Membership of the Fund is open to all States Members of the United Nations or any of its specialised agencies, or of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and intergovernmental organisations of regional economic integration which exercise competence in the fields of activity of the Fund.

List of Member States

Special Mentions

The Common Fund’s partnership with the OPEC Fund for International Development is historic and dates back to the very inception of the Fund. The OPEC Fund not only facilitated and paid capital subscription for as many as 37 Least Developed Countries (LDCs) but continues to make contributions under “Framework of Financial Support” towards CFC’s commodity development projects for the least developed countries and poorer strata in other developing countries.

The Kingdom of Norway and the European Commission have been supportive of the Fund and have sponsored capital contribution of 9 and 3 countries respectively.

The Kingdom of the Netherlands: A Trust Fund arrangement set up by the Netherlands Ministry for Development Cooperation to support CFC projects with co-financing contributions for the Five Year Action Plan.

Read more about our Partners

Annual Report 2023

The modern world is built on commodities – from the food that keeps us alive to the oil that fuels our cars to the metals that power our smartphones. We rarely stop to consider where they have come from. But we should. We invite you to peruse our annual report to make a difference in the lives of almost three billion smallholders who work so hard to make all those commodities available to us.