Trade, value chains, and rent distribution with foreign exchange controls: Coffee exports in Ethiopia

Exchange rate policies can have important implications on incentives for export agriculture. However, their effects are often not well understood. We study the issue of foreign exchange controls and pricing in the value chain for Ethiopia’s coffee - its most important export crop. Relying on unique...

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Autores principales: Tamru, Seneshaw, Minten, Bart, Swinnen, Johan
Formato: Artículo preliminar
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: International Food Policy Research Institute 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146004
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author Tamru, Seneshaw
Minten, Bart
Swinnen, Johan
author_browse Minten, Bart
Swinnen, Johan
Tamru, Seneshaw
author_facet Tamru, Seneshaw
Minten, Bart
Swinnen, Johan
author_sort Tamru, Seneshaw
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Exchange rate policies can have important implications on incentives for export agriculture. However, their effects are often not well understood. We study the issue of foreign exchange controls and pricing in the value chain for Ethiopia’s coffee - its most important export crop. Relying on unique pricing and cost data, we find that coffee exporters are willing to incur losses during exporting by offering high prices for coffee locally in order to access scarce foreign exchange. The losses in export markets are then more than recovered in importing, indicating rents - import parity prices are significantly lower than the prices charged for imported goods, so that profits on imports are much higher than the losses incurred in exporting. We further show that the high coffee wholesale prices are transmitted to farmers, so that they benefit from the rents downstream. These results suggest that a better exchange rate alignment to reduce the overvaluation of the local currency in this case would have a lower impact on export crop producer prices than typically is anticipated.
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spelling CGSpace1460042025-11-06T05:02:35Z Trade, value chains, and rent distribution with foreign exchange controls: Coffee exports in Ethiopia Tamru, Seneshaw Minten, Bart Swinnen, Johan imports supply chains exports trade coffee food prices exchange rate prices Exchange rate policies can have important implications on incentives for export agriculture. However, their effects are often not well understood. We study the issue of foreign exchange controls and pricing in the value chain for Ethiopia’s coffee - its most important export crop. Relying on unique pricing and cost data, we find that coffee exporters are willing to incur losses during exporting by offering high prices for coffee locally in order to access scarce foreign exchange. The losses in export markets are then more than recovered in importing, indicating rents - import parity prices are significantly lower than the prices charged for imported goods, so that profits on imports are much higher than the losses incurred in exporting. We further show that the high coffee wholesale prices are transmitted to farmers, so that they benefit from the rents downstream. These results suggest that a better exchange rate alignment to reduce the overvaluation of the local currency in this case would have a lower impact on export crop producer prices than typically is anticipated. 2019-09-18 2024-06-21T09:05:33Z 2024-06-21T09:05:33Z Working Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146004 en https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12608 Open Access application/pdf International Food Policy Research Institute Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Policy Studies Institute Tamru, Seneshaw; Minten, Bart; and Swinnen, Johan. 2019. Trade, value chains, and rent distribution with foreign exchange controls: Coffee exports in Ethiopia. ESSP Working Paper 136. Washington, DC; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI); Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Policy Studies Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146004
spellingShingle imports
supply chains
exports
trade
coffee
food prices
exchange rate
prices
Tamru, Seneshaw
Minten, Bart
Swinnen, Johan
Trade, value chains, and rent distribution with foreign exchange controls: Coffee exports in Ethiopia
title Trade, value chains, and rent distribution with foreign exchange controls: Coffee exports in Ethiopia
title_full Trade, value chains, and rent distribution with foreign exchange controls: Coffee exports in Ethiopia
title_fullStr Trade, value chains, and rent distribution with foreign exchange controls: Coffee exports in Ethiopia
title_full_unstemmed Trade, value chains, and rent distribution with foreign exchange controls: Coffee exports in Ethiopia
title_short Trade, value chains, and rent distribution with foreign exchange controls: Coffee exports in Ethiopia
title_sort trade value chains and rent distribution with foreign exchange controls coffee exports in ethiopia
topic imports
supply chains
exports
trade
coffee
food prices
exchange rate
prices
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146004
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