Pulse, export and staple convenience food: market analysis in West Africa

ABSTRACT

The recent expansion of trade measures across countries in sub-Saharan Africa provides market opportunities for the agri-food sector. However, price signals and changes across domestic and regional continental markets are a factor in boosting the success and performance of these markets. Examining commodity market adjustments to price shocks is essential for insights to boost trade performance. Using prominent food categories of the agricultural sector in this region, the study examines market dynamics between pulses, exports, and other staple convenience food. Spatial analysis evaluates market inter-dependencies between regional and domestic markets using a vector error correction model. The findings suggest heterogeneous market effects across commodities horizontally and vertically for value-added product forms in the food chain. In domestic intra-regional markets, price transmission is about as high for regional continental markets, while the extent for inter-regional domestic markets varies by the commodity niche on the value chain. Tailored market development policies can better the overall functioning of agri-food markets and boost the convergence of markets as well as trade integration and expansion.

KEYWORDS:

• Agricultural markets
• Value-Addition
• Price Linkages
• West Africa

JEL CODES:

• C22
• Q11
• Q13
• Q18

Declarations

Acknowledgments

Discussions with Loy J.-P. and Bittmann T. were of benefit during the period of writing this paper. The author thanks Mawugnon F. E. S. for providing the data.

Disclosure statement

The author declares no known competing interest

Data availability statement

Available from the author upon reasonable request