Tracking intraregional trade in food staples in COMESA region Presented at the ReSAKSS Stakeholder Workshop on Strategic Analysis to inform Agricultural Policy 11 th June, 2012 Julliet Wanjiku
Jun 20, 2015
Tracking intraregional trade in food staples in COMESA region
Presented at the ReSAKSS Stakeholder Workshop on
Strategic Analysis to inform Agricultural Policy11th June, 2012
Julliet Wanjiku
Presentation outline
• Introduction
• The process of tracking intraregional trade
• Challenges of tracking intraregional trade
• Status of intra-COMESA trade in food staples
• Conclusion
Introduction• Existing initiatives to explain trade potential among
COMESA member countries– The Regional Agricultural Trade Intelligence Network (RATIN) of
the Eastern Africa Grain Council (EAGC)
– Alliance for Commodity Trade for Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA) by COMESA
• However, the initiatives do not continuously track the progress in trade
• Thus ReSAKSS has on going project on trade IndicatorAnnual trade indicatorFrom baseline, 2008
ReSAKSS’ Trade Indicator: the process• Identification of data sources: Formal and informal
• Evaluating quality of existing data
• Assessing trade indicators development options
• Stakeholder workshops
• Final methodological framework developed & shared with stakeholders
• Methodology adopted: Use of mirror records for formal data, all available informal trade data are used
Challenges• Formal trade - discrepancies between mirror
records
• Informal trade – incompleteness/ absence of data
• only a few agencies collect informal trade data on a regular basis- UBOS and Market Analysis Subgroup (MAS)
• Lack of harmonised protocol for cross-border trade monitoring –Manual to be published
Data discrepancies: maize trade between Kenya and Tanzania
2007 2006 2005 2004 20030
10000
20000
30000
40000
50000
60000
70000Ken to TanTan from KenTan to KenKen from Tan
Repo
rted
mai
ze tr
ade
(ton
nes)
Data source: COMTRADE, 2010
Data discrepancies: maize trade between Kenya and Uganda
2007 2006 2005 2004 20030
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
35000
40000
45000
50000
Ken to UgaUga from KenUga to KenKen from Uga
Repo
rted
mai
ze tr
ade
(ton
nes)
Data source: FAOSTAT, 2010
Data discrepancy: maize trade between Kenya and Uganda
2007 2006 2005 2004 20030
20000
40000
60000
80000
100000
120000
140000Ken to UgaUga from KenUga to KenKen from Uga
Repo
rted
mai
ze tr
ade
(ton
nes)
Data source: COMSTAT, 2010
Data discrepancy: maize trade between Canada and USA
2007 20060
500000
1000000
1500000
2000000
2500000
3000000Can to USAUSA from CanUSA to CanCan from USA
Repo
rted
mai
ze tr
ade
(ton
nes)
Data source: COMSTRADE, 2010
Border markets with informal trade in staple foods in ESA
Only a few border points are monitored, hence incompleteness of data
Status of intra-COMESA trade in food staples
Trends in intra-COMESA trade 2008-10
Source: International Trade Centre, Trade Map
Trends in intra-COMESA food staples trade 2008-2010
Source: COMstat, UBOS, EAGC and FEWSNET
Both values and volumes are tracked
Growth in Intra-COMESA Food Staple Trade 2008 – 2010
Source: Computed using data from COMStat, UBOS and MAS group
Conclusion• 10 countries were selected based on availability of data
• Several data gaps especially for informal trade; need for improvement in trade data collection infrastructure
• Trade was reported to go down between 2008 and 2009; between 2009 and 2010, trade increased
• Decline in trade was caused by change in weather conditions, existence of restrictive trade policies e.g. export bans, increase in trade was caused by good agricultural harvests
• unique and severe constraints to trade: land-locked countries; poor infrastructure and services; cumbersome border procedures; inadequate mainstreaming of trade in national development strategies; lack of progress in deepening economic integration
• There is need to mobilise resources for financing trade facilitation within the region
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Thank you for listening