Supply utilisation accounts are time series data dealing with statistics on supply (production, imports and stock changes) and utilisation (exports,  feed + seed ,  food, and  other use-including waste) which are kept physically together to allow the matching of food availability with food use.

The statistical framework of SUAs has been developed with the aim of providing a useful statistical tool for the preparation, conduct and appraisal of government action aimed at developing and improving the agricultural and food sectors of national economies.

It has long been recognised that it is no longer meaningful to deal separately with individual statistical series, such as those for production and trade, etc. While the separate data series by themselves are no doubt important, it is equally important to establish the links between them. Statisticians must be in a position to work with flows and matrices rather than with individual sets of data alone. This implies that the statistics of any single commodity must be traceable all the way from production and utilisation to their final consumption.

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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 availablity for human consumption which corresponds to the sources of supply and its utilisation. 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 utilisation side a distinction is made between the quantities exported, fed to livestock + used for seed,  losses during storage and transportation, and food supplies available for human consumption. The per capita 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 in 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 dietary energy value, protein and fat content.

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