This will both increase the demand for food and create shifts in relative food demands with a likely greater demand for proteins and more processed products. Trade openness provides a number of advantages in helping countries better adjust to these developments. It provides for a greater diversity of products to be available and accessible for consumers - helping consumers meet their full range of nutritional needs. It also allow's for the benefits from changing patterns of specialisation to be realised and provides access to global and regional agro-food value chains. With income growth, there has been increased demand for more processed products, which means for many commodities, the value chain involved in getting the product from the farm gate to the final consumer is being extended. Participation in value chains is facilitated by low barriers to trade and improved regulatory coherence that allow products at various states of transformation to flow across borders: in other words, imports play an important role in creating a competitive export sector.