International trade and world food security : The role of developed countries since the World Food Conference

No mechanism is in place for the international coordination of grain stocks. World market stability is largely dependent upon the actions of major grain trading countries. These countries have avoided the exportation of their domestic supply variations onto world markets over the past decade, but have been reluctant to allow domestic consumption to respond to world shortages and surpluses. Improvement in the sensitivity of domestic storage and consumption to world conditions could increase their contribution to world food security.     

The multidimensional effect of financial development on trade in Africa: The role of the digital economy

The issue of how financial development affects international trade has gained much attention in the literature, both theoretical and empirical, without investigating the various transmission channels of financial development on international trade. Significantly, how the digital economy modulates the effects of financial development on trade remains unexplored. Our study addresses these research gaps using panel data from 47 African economies spanning 1990 to 2019. Our findings based on the dynamic system GMM approach show that the direct impacts of financial development and the digital economy have been crucial in driving international trade in Africa in the short and long runs. Second, in the short and long runs, the digital economy serves as a vital channel through which financial development has the most significant impact on trade in Africa. Third, the robustness checks by excluding countries endowed with natural resources in Africa provide robust evidence that digital technology and finance matter for trade. Further, the study discloses an important novelty in that the marginal effects on trade increase when financial development in Africa interacts with the digital economy. In light of these findings, we conclude that policy reforms should focus on policies that encourage the development of the digital economy and its use in the financial sector in Africa.     

Wheat in the world food economy: Increasing role in developing countries

Wheat is the oldest and most important of the cereal grains in world food supply. In the last two decades the role of wheat in the world food economy has increased substantially, especially in the developing world. This article describes and analyses the role of wheat and highlights and interprets changes that have occurred in the last two decades of rapid change. The authors analyse, in turn, trends in production, consumption, trade and prices with special emphasis on the developing countries.¹ Finally, the authors speculate on how these trends are likely to be effected by future events.     

Global water crisis and future food security in an era of climate change

Food policy should serve humanity by advancing the humane goals of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. However, these goals have recently been challenged by emerging forces including climate change, water scarcity, the energy crisis as well as the credit crisis. This paper analyses the overall role of these forces and population growth in redefining global food security. Specifically, global water supply and demand as well as the linkages between water supply and food security are examined. The analysis reveals that the water for food security situation is intricate and might get daunting if no action is taken. Investments are needed today for enhancing future food security; this requires action on several fronts, including tackling climate change, preserving land and conserving water, reducing the energy footprint in food systems, developing and adopting climate resilient varieties, modernising irrigation infrastructure, shoring up domestic food supplies, reforming international food trade, and responding to other global challenges.     

The changing public role in services to food and agriculture : The legal regulation of food markets in India

A framework allowing the commercial transfer of property rights is an essential prerequisite to market exchange widely considered the prerogative of the state. Here, the social history of the legal regulation of agricultural markets in central, south and northeast India is examined. Regulatory law is shown to be riven with unanticipated outcomes, working as intended only under rare conditions of competition and absence of preharvest commercial debt. Meso level institutions of collective action and micro level behaviour by firms also regulate exchange, unsystematically according to their multiple objectives. Foreign funded projects and another layer of customary procedure. In the light of this analysis, the current policy debates over agricultural market reform are discussed and an analytical framework and suggestions for reform are offered.     

Regional trade and food security in SADC

A number of pertinent questions on regional trade and food security in southern Africa is addressed in this paper, namely: Should a country go it alone or should it belong to a regional trade bloc? Within the SADC region, should countries be content to be cereal importers? How can free trade be phased in? How can intra-SADC trade be expanded? Potentially sensitive agricultural products are listed and the sensitivity in grain milling and cereals is discussed in detail. The major conclusion is that trade in the region can contribute substantially to provide improved food security. There is also considerable scope for greater intra-regional trade in grain and other food products, and for greater cross-border investment in agriculture and agro-industry.     

Rice market integration and food security in Nepal: The role of cross-border trade with India

Coarse rice market integration between Nepal and India is analyzed applying a threshold autoregressive model. The price response behaviour of traders is found to be consistent with an asymmetric price adjustment mechanism, indicating coarse rice prices in Nepal respond to shocks originating in India. The results show that adjustments to negative price deviations from long-run stable equilibrium are faster than adjustments to the positive ones given a null threshold. Given that trade flows mainly from India to Nepal, Nepali traders would adjust their prices upward to align with the long-run equilibrium value relatively more quickly in the case of negative price deviations, than if the price deviations were positive. Such a high speed of adjustment to negative price deviations could be detrimental to net food buyers’ food security status in the absence of a price stabilization mechanism. However, a price stabilization policy in Nepal, a food deficit and import dependent country, would hardly have any effect on prices unless further effort is made to build up the level of national food reserves for short-term food security interventions. In the current context of structurally low levels of national food reserves, an alternative short-term policy such as foreign aid, in the form of food or income transfers, targeting the most vulnerable households to price increases is necessary through social safety net programmes. In the long-run, an improvement of transportation infrastructure between market hubs (other than the Biratnagar trade basin) in the Terai (Nepal) and India would contribute to the reduction of transaction costs and create incentives for more competition in formal cross-border trade with India. In times of negative shocks such as the high food price crisis in 2008, restrictive food trade policies in India will continue to undermine household food security in Nepal.     

Putting the 2007/2008 global food crisis in longer-term perspective: Trends in staple food affordability in urban Zambia and Kenya

Staple food prices in cities in eastern and southern Africa rose sharply between late 2007 and early 2009, leading to estimates of massive increases in food insecurity and hunger. However, in assessing the impacts of soaring food prices on urban consumers’ access to food it is important to consider food price changes relative to changes in per capita incomes. In this study, we use the case studies of Zambia and Kenya, where data are available on food prices, wage rates, incomes, and other indicators of urban purchasing power to answer two main questions: (i) how did staple food purchasing power at the height of the food price crisis compare to levels over the last 15 years? and (ii) did the food price crisis exacerbate an already declining trend in staple food purchasing power, or did it reverse a trend of stable or improving staple food affordability? Results indicate that staple food purchasing power in urban Zambia and Kenya improved markedly in the 10–12 years prior to the food price crisis. Most measures of bread and maize meal affordability at the start of the crisis in 2007 were at levels 1.0–4.3 times higher than in the mid-1990s. These gains for urban consumers were slashed but not completely reversed during the food crisis. Between 2007 and 2009, maize meal and bread were still more affordable in urban Zambia than all periods between 1994 and 2003. In urban Kenya, staple food purchasing power as of 2008/2009 was comparable to levels in 2000/2001–2004/2005 according to some indicators, while other measures suggest that the food price crisis reduced staple food purchasing power to levels lower than any other year in the period 1994/1995–2007/2008.     

Exploring the role of relationship pricing in industrial export settings: Empirical evidence from the UK

This paper sets out to shed initial empirical light on the role of relationship pricing in an industrial export context, by a) investigating the extent to which selected contextual variables shape the adoption of relationship pricing, and b) examining manifestations of relationship pricing in the process that industrial exporters use for levying their prices. Analyzing data from a stratified random sample of 243 UK exporters of industrial products, the results demonstrate that the adoption of relationship pricing is a) facilitated by the degree of an exporter's market orientation, export experience, and the level of formality in export price setting and b) hindered by firm age and export intensity. It is also shown that industrial exporting firms adopting relationship pricing tend to follow a more market-based export price decision-making process, as this is manifested in market-based export pricing information, objectives and policies. The practical implications of the findings are discussed and useful future research directions are highlighted.     

The impact of food safety standards on processed food exports from developing countries

This paper examines the impact of food safety standards on processed food exports in developing countries. A panel data econometric analysis of processed food exports in developing countries was undertaken. The Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standard (SPS) is incorporated into the model to capture the impact of food safety standards. The empirical model shows that food safety standards imposed by developed countries could impede processed food exports from developing countries. This could emerge because practically, SPS is less transparent than tariffs or quotas. There is an ample room for developed countries to tweak the standards stronger than necessary to achieve optimal levels of social protection, and to twist the related testing and certification procedures to make their competing imports more competitive. In addition, limited supply-side capacity of developing countries, especially in terms of resources, manpower as well as institution, constrains the countries to overcome food safety standards. Because of the potential benefits that could emerge from imposing food safety standards such as a reduction in transaction costs and trade friction, developing countries should view SPS not just as a trade barrier but also as an opportunity to upgrade quality standard and market sophistication. Supply-side capacity in developing countries needed to be improved, especially upgrading agriculture sector. Multilateral efforts are also needed to mobilize additional financial and technical assistance to help redress constraints in developing countries in meeting the required food safety standards imposed by developed countries.     

The economics and nutritional impacts of food assistance policies and programs

Recent evidence on malnutrition and poverty raise important questions on the role of food assistance policies and programs. In this review article, we examine evidence on the economic and nutritional impacts of international food assistance programs (FAPs) and policies. The returns on investments in FAPs are, on average, high but depend considerably on the targeting and cost structures as well as on food quality and role of complementary activities. We disaggregate findings into four classes of recipients. Returns to FAPs are highest for children under two. But, FAPs oriented towards early childhood interventions are less well funded than are interventions aimed at school-age children or at the broader, largely adult population even though available evidence indicates that these latter classes of interventions offer considerably lower average returns in economic, health, and nutrition terms. Nonetheless, FAP effectiveness in achieving any of several objectives varies with a range of key factors, including targeting, additionality, seasonality, timeliness, incentive effects, social acceptability and political economy considerations.     

Dynamics of food policy formulation in the USA

Examination of the dynamics of food policy formulation in the USA reveals a series of intriguing contrasts. As an example of pluralist decision making, it is unequalled in the sheer number and variety of actors and interests which it encompasses. This article analyses four principal generic elements of the food policy process: its ideological underpinnings; its policy settings; its substantive components; and, its foreign-domestic linkages. The profound changes which have occurred in the Washington political climate are also considered in terms of their implications for food-related policies in both the domestic and international arenas.     

Hungary's meat price and trade policies : Conforming to some economic constraints of a socialist country

This paper analyses Hungary's price and trade policies for meat and livestock. Three policy constraints are discussed — the need to control consumer discontent, to provide employment, and to maintain close ties with the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) and the Soviet Union. Of particular interest are Hungary's exports of meat rather than grain, and the impact of policies on large and small producers and on Hungary's dependence on the Soviet market.     

Postmodern conceptualizations,modernist applications: Rethinking the role of society in food security

Food security studies, while giving ever more attention to issues of perception and local knowledge in food outcomes, have yet to engage in a systematic discussion of the role played by society in food outcomes. While contemporary studies of food outcomes address issues of the social, especially as social structures relate to access to and production of food, this literature lacks an accompanying theory of the social that might lend it broad, cross-contextual coherence.     

The impact of the European Novel Food Regulation on trade and food innovation based on traditional plant foods from developing countries

The stringent food safety assessment for novel foods required by the European Union’s Novel Food Regulation (NFR) places a high burden of proof on those bringing traditional food products to the EU market not consumed in the EU prior 1997. The regulation has emerged as a non-tariff trade barrier for heritage foods from developing countries that are viewed as “exotic” from the EU perspective. We show how the regulation has discouraged investment in supply chains and market development, and how this negatively affects income generation and rural poverty alleviation in developing countries. Focusing on plant-derived foods, this paper proposes to recognize traditional exotic foods in current EU law as a food category sui generis with food safety evidence requirements being proportionate to the risks they may pose. We argue that development activities promoting export food chains must increasingly accommodate legitimate food safety concerns about neglected food species in project design and seek to generate data to enhance regulatory acceptance in target markets.     

Local impacts of a global crisis: Food price transmission,consumer welfare and poverty in Ghana

This paper takes a local perspective on global food price shocks by analyzing food price transmission between regional markets in Ghana. It also assesses the impacts of food price increases on various household groups. Taking the 2007–2008 global food crisis as an example, we show that prices for domestic grain products are highly correlated with world market prices. This is true both for products for which Ghana is highly import-dependent (e.g., rice) and the products for which Ghana is self-sufficient (e.g., maize). The econometric results also show that price transmission is high between regional producer markets and markets located in the country’s largest cities, and the distance between producer and consumer markets and the size of consumer markets matter in explaining the price transmission. The welfare analysis for households as consumers shows that the effect of world food prices appears relatively modest for the country as a whole due to relatively diverse consumption patterns within country. However, the national average hides important regional differences, both between regions and within different income groups. We find that the poorest of the poor—particularly those living in the urban areas—are hardest hit by high food prices. The negative effect of the food crisis is particularly strong in northern Ghana. The main explanations for this regional variation in the price effect is the different consumption patterns and much lower per capita income levels in the North of Ghana compared to other regions in the country.     

Conflict,food price shocks,and food insecurity: The experience of Afghan households

Using nationally-representative household survey data and confidential geo-coded data on violent incidents, we examine the relationship between conflict and food insecurity in Afghanistan. Spatial mappings of the raw data reveal large variations in levels of food insecurity and conflict across the country; surprisingly, high conflict provinces are not the most food insecure. Using a simple bivariate regression model of conflict (violent incidents and persons killed or injured) on food security (calorie intake and the real value of food consumed), we find mixed associations. But once we move to a multivariate framework, accounting for household characteristics and key commodity prices, we find robust evidence that in Afghanistan levels of conflict and food security are negatively correlated. We also find that households in provinces with higher levels of conflict experience muted declines in food security due to staple food price increases relative tohouseholds in provinces with lower levels of conflict, perhaps because the former are more disconnected from markets. Gaining a better understanding of linkages between conflict and food insecurity and knowing their spatial distributions can serve to inform policymakers interested in targeting scarce resources to vulnerable populations, for example, through the placement of strategic grain reserves or targeted food assistance programs.     

Firm and destination-specific export costs: The case of the Swedish food sector

This paper focuses on sunk export costs in the Swedish food and beverage sector. Its purpose is threefold. First, it investigates whether the estimation of the importance of sunk costs is sensitive to persistence bilateral (firm-destination) effects such as specific market knowledge compared to firm-specific effects such as managerial skills or product quality. Second, it analyses the effects of firm and market characteristics on firms’ export decisions. Third, it tests whether the importance of sunk costs varies with destination as well as firm characteristics. The main results are: (1) that firm-destination effects are more important than general, unobserved firm characteristics, (2) that more productive and larger firms are more likely to export and that firms’ expectations from exporting increase with market size and exchange rate stability, and (3) that the importance of sunk export costs varies with firm and market characteristics.     

The four world food organizations: Influence of the Group of 77

The influence of the Group of 77 (G77) within the four world food organizations in Rome is limited. The structure of power and the policy making process within each organization varies rather considerably, but in each of them G77 has neither the resources, information, unity nor leadership needed to play a very influential role. The international economy is presently in a state of doldrums, and the Group of 77 is struggling, not without some success, to maintain the status quo within the world food organizations that it estabilshed during the 1970s.     

The sustainability and resilience of global water and food systems: Political analysis of the interplay between security,resource scarcity,political systems and global trade

This article looks at the interrelationship between water and food security. More specifically, it examines the resilience and sustainability of water and food systems to shocks and stresses linked to different levels and intensity of conflict, global trade and climate change. The article makes four points: (1) that resource scarcity as a driver of conflict is inconclusive especially at regional and national levels (2) most insecurities surrounding water and food are explained by political power, social and gender relations; (3) global trade has enabled national food and water security, but that is now threatened by increasing food prices, food sovereignty movements and land ‘grabbing’ (4) and that water and food security will face major challenges under conditions of climate change.