The indicators used for each of the five dimensions are listed in table 6. In order to account for the production potential and trade security of the countries, a sequential method was used to generate a profile on food security for each country. Countries were first divided according to the level of their reliance on imports, with those whose food import account for less than 10 per cent of total export categorized as “trade secure”, while those above 10 per cent identified as “trade insecure”. The second screening step divided the countries according to their annual food production, per-capita level, with countries having higher levels than the mean value of the 175 sample countries classified as “high food production countries”, while the remaining countries were classified as “low food producing countries”.