The emergence of food and agriculture global value chains (GVCs) is challenging the way scholars look at trade data, as well as how policy makers establish their trade policies. The common perception is that Sub‐Saharan African (SSA) countries, unlike most Latin American and Asian countries, are not deeply integrated into global production networks. Consequently, it is believed that the border protection policies of the former may have a limited impact on GVC participation. This paper challenges this conventional knowledge in two ways. First, by decomposing bilateral gross export into its value added components, we show that the sectoral and bilateral SSA participation in GVC for food and agriculture is substantial. Second, we demonstrate that trade policies impact backward and forward value chain linkages. These results call for a refinement of trade policy priorities in SSA.
PurposeBecause of the increasing differential between farm and retail prices, the study proposes to investigate the extent of market power in the rice value chain of Bangladesh using advanced econometric techniques.Design/methodology/approachUsing a Stochastic Frontier Estimation approach on cross-sectional data, the study examines the price spread along the rice value chain to determine whether millers and wholesalers exercise market power.FindingsEmpirical results reveal that, on average, rice millers and wholesalers charge 33 and 29% above the marginal cost, respectively. This study confirms the non-competitive behavior of the rice market with wholesalers and millers wielding substantial market powerResearch limitations/implicationsA limitation of the study is that it does not include the retailers who also play a major role in the Bangladesh rice value chain. This is left for future study.Originality/valueThis study combines primary and secondary data collected on the Bangladesh rice sector to examine the market power of two major players along the value chain, millers and wholesalers, using an advanced econometrics approach.
Highlights
Estimating effects of highly processed food (HPF) taxes on obesity and underweight.
Trade liberalization mitigates underweight but aggravates obesity prevalence in SSA.
Taxes on HPF reduce obesity, increase underweight but effects differ by region, income, gender.
Magnitude of consumption taxes needs to be very substantial to have a notable effect.
Integrated policy framework considering both issues simultaneously is required.
Reducing food losses and waste (FLW) is one of the sustainable ways of closing the food requirement gap in developing countries. However, there is not yet adequate knowledge on the extent of FLW by commodity type and stage of the food supply chain (FSC). Focusing on ten agrarian countries in Africa and building mainly on the Food and Agriculture Organization's Food Balance Sheets (FBSs), this study generates some new insights on the level of FLW by country, FSC and food type. Across the FSC, we find that these countries lose a cumulative amount equivalent to 28% (641 kilocalories per capita per day - kcal/cap/day) of the current calorie intake. Within the FSC, the production and post-harvest handling stages contribute the greater shares of the total losses with 38% or 244 kcal/cap/day and 34% or 218 kcal/cap/day, respectively. Our results also show that farm incomes would increase by 20% if the avoidable losses and waste were recovered. These results are troublesome given the level of poverty and food insecurity in these countries and suggest inefficient and unsustainable use of natural resources (water and cropland) associated with the FSC losses.
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