Qu Dongyu of China was elected Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Qu Dongyu, Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture of China was elected Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on Sunday the 23rd of June.

Qu Dongyu received a total of 108 votes out of 191 cast, constituting a majority in the first round, followed by France's Catherine Geslain-Laneelle with 71 votes and Georgia's Davit Kirvalidze with 12 votes. 

The election took place during the 41st session of the FAO Conference (22-29 June 2019), the highest governing body of the Organization. 

Qu Dongyu will be FAO's ninth Director-General since the Organization was founded on October 16, 1945.

The term of the new Director-General, who will succeed Brazil’s José Graziano da Silva, will start on 1 August 2019 and run to 31 July 2023.

FAO Directors-General

Since the establishment of FAO in 1945, there have been eight Directors-General:

• Sir John Boyd Orr, United Kingdom, 1945-1948 
• Norris E. Dodd, United States, 1948-1954 
• Philip Vincent Cardon, United States, 1954-1956 
• Binay Ranjan Sen, India, 1956-1967 
• Addeke Hendrik Boerma, Netherlands, 1968-1975 
• Edouard Saouma, Lebanon, 1976-1993 
• Jacques Diouf, Senegal, 1994-2011 
• José Graziano da Silva, Brazil, 2011-2019

Before joining China's agriculture ministry, Qu worked at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science. He has also been in charge of China's agri-business work with countries from Asia, Africa and Latin America.