Food prices and marketing margins during the COVID‐19 pandemic: Evidence from vegetable value chains in Ethiopia

It is widely feared that the shock of the COVID‐19 pandemic will lead to a significant worsening of the food security situation in low and middle‐income countries. One reason for this is the disruption of food marketing systems and subsequent changes in farm and consumer prices. Based on primary dat...

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Autores principales: Hirvonen, Kalle, Minten, Bart, Mohammed, Belay, Tamru, Seneshaw
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: International Association of Agricultural Economists 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142275
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author Hirvonen, Kalle
Minten, Bart
Mohammed, Belay
Tamru, Seneshaw
author_browse Hirvonen, Kalle
Minten, Bart
Mohammed, Belay
Tamru, Seneshaw
author_facet Hirvonen, Kalle
Minten, Bart
Mohammed, Belay
Tamru, Seneshaw
author_sort Hirvonen, Kalle
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description It is widely feared that the shock of the COVID‐19 pandemic will lead to a significant worsening of the food security situation in low and middle‐income countries. One reason for this is the disruption of food marketing systems and subsequent changes in farm and consumer prices. Based on primary data in Ethiopia collected just before the start and a few months into the pandemic, we assess changes in farm and consumer prices of four major vegetables and the contribution of different segments of the rural‐urban value chain in urban retail price formation. We find large, but heterogeneous, price changes for different vegetables with relatively larger changes seen at the farm level, compared to the consumer level, leading to winners and losers among local vegetable farmers due to pandemic‐related trade disruptions. We further that despite substantial hurdles in domestic trade reported by most value chain agents, increases in marketing—and especially transportation—costs have not been the major contributor to overall changes in retail prices. Marketing margins even declined for half of the vegetables studied. The relatively small changes in marketing margins overall indicate the resilience of these domestic value chains during the pandemic in Ethiopia.
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spelling CGSpace1422752025-12-08T10:11:39Z Food prices and marketing margins during the COVID‐19 pandemic: Evidence from vegetable value chains in Ethiopia Hirvonen, Kalle Minten, Bart Mohammed, Belay Tamru, Seneshaw value chains covid-19 vegetables food prices pandemics food systems It is widely feared that the shock of the COVID‐19 pandemic will lead to a significant worsening of the food security situation in low and middle‐income countries. One reason for this is the disruption of food marketing systems and subsequent changes in farm and consumer prices. Based on primary data in Ethiopia collected just before the start and a few months into the pandemic, we assess changes in farm and consumer prices of four major vegetables and the contribution of different segments of the rural‐urban value chain in urban retail price formation. We find large, but heterogeneous, price changes for different vegetables with relatively larger changes seen at the farm level, compared to the consumer level, leading to winners and losers among local vegetable farmers due to pandemic‐related trade disruptions. We further that despite substantial hurdles in domestic trade reported by most value chain agents, increases in marketing—and especially transportation—costs have not been the major contributor to overall changes in retail prices. Marketing margins even declined for half of the vegetables studied. The relatively small changes in marketing margins overall indicate the resilience of these domestic value chains during the pandemic in Ethiopia. 2021-06-07 2024-05-22T12:10:15Z 2024-05-22T12:10:15Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142275 en https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/15740862/2021/52/3 https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134768 https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134898 Open Access International Association of Agricultural Economists Hirvonen, Kalle; Minten, Bart; Mohammed, Belay; and Tamru, Seneshaw. 2021. Food prices and marketing margins during the COVID‐19 pandemic: Evidence from vegetable value chains in Ethiopia. Agricultural Economics 52(3): 407-421. https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12626
spellingShingle value chains
covid-19
vegetables
food prices
pandemics
food systems
Hirvonen, Kalle
Minten, Bart
Mohammed, Belay
Tamru, Seneshaw
Food prices and marketing margins during the COVID‐19 pandemic: Evidence from vegetable value chains in Ethiopia
title Food prices and marketing margins during the COVID‐19 pandemic: Evidence from vegetable value chains in Ethiopia
title_full Food prices and marketing margins during the COVID‐19 pandemic: Evidence from vegetable value chains in Ethiopia
title_fullStr Food prices and marketing margins during the COVID‐19 pandemic: Evidence from vegetable value chains in Ethiopia
title_full_unstemmed Food prices and marketing margins during the COVID‐19 pandemic: Evidence from vegetable value chains in Ethiopia
title_short Food prices and marketing margins during the COVID‐19 pandemic: Evidence from vegetable value chains in Ethiopia
title_sort food prices and marketing margins during the covid 19 pandemic evidence from vegetable value chains in ethiopia
topic value chains
covid-19
vegetables
food prices
pandemics
food systems
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142275
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