Market information use at national and regional level: case of ReSAKSS use of MIS

for Tracking intraregional trade in food staples in COMESA region

By

Julliet Wanjiku, ReSAKSS-ECA

International Workshop on

Increasing Agricultural Input and Output Trade Through Innovative Market Information Systems in Africa

Nairobi, Kenya – August 27-31, 2012

Presentation outline

Introduction

The process of tracking intraregional trade

Challenges of tracking intraregional trade

Status of intra-COMESA trade in food staples

Conclusion

Existing MIS to explain trade potential among COMESA member countries• The Regional Agricultural Trade Intelligence Network (RATIN) of the Eastern Africa

Grain Council (EAGC)• Alliance for Commodity Trade for Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA) by

COMESA

However, the initiatives do not continuously track the progress in trade

Thus ReSAKSS has on going project on trade Indicator

Annual trade indicator (From baseline, 2008)

Introduction

ReSAKSS’ Trade Indicator: the process Identification of data sources: Formal and informal

Evaluating quality of existing data

Assessing trade indicators development options

Stakeholder workshops

Final methodological framework developed & shared with stakeholders

Methodology adopted: Use of mirror records for formal data, all available informal trade data are used

Challenges Formal trade - discrepancies between mirror records

Informal trade – incompleteness/ absence of data

only a few agencies collect informal trade data on a regular basis- UBOS and Market Analysis Subgroup (MAS)

Lack of harmonised protocol for cross-border trade monitoring –Manual to be published

Data discrepancies: case of maize trade between Kenya and Tanzania

2007 2006 2005 2004 20030

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000Ken to TanTan from KenTan to KenKen from Tan

Repo

rted

mai

ze tr

ade

(ton

nes)

Data Source: COMTRADE, 2010

Data discrepancies…: case of maize trade between Kenya and Uganda

2007 2006 2005 2004 20030

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

40000

45000

50000

Ken to UgaUga from KenUga to KenKen from Uga

Repo

rted

mai

ze tr

ade

(ton

nes)

Data source: FAOSTAT, 2010

Data discrepancy…: maize trade between Kenya and Uganda

2007 2006 2005 2004 20030

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

120000

140000Ken to UgaUga from KenUga to KenKen from Uga

Repo

rted

mai

ze tr

ade

(ton

nes)

Data source:: COMSTAT, 2010

Data discrepancy: maize trade between Canada and USA

2007 20060

500000

1000000

1500000

2000000

2500000

3000000Can to USAUSA from CanUSA to CanCan from USA

Repo

rted

mai

ze tr

ade

(ton

nes)

Data source: COMSTRADE, 2010

Border markets with informal trade in staple foods in ESA

Only a few border points are monitored, hence incompleteness of data

Status of intra-COMESA trade in food staples

Trends in intra-COMESA trade 2008-10

Source: International Trade Centre, Trade Map

Trends in intra-COMESA food staples trade 2008-2010

Source: COMstat, UBOS, EAGC and FEWSNET

Both values and volumes are tracked

Growth in Intra-COMESA Food Staple Trade 2008 – 2010

Source: Computed using data from COMStat, UBOS and MAS group

Tracking Agricultural input in COMESA region

This is work in process

Proposed to use same methodology as the tracking of food staples

Main challenge is availability of regionally traded agricultural input data

Which inputs to track? Both value and volumes

Consensus to be arrived at in a workshop in Sep, 2012

Conclusion 10 countries were selected based on availability of data

Data gaps especially for informal trade; need for improvement in trade data collection infrastructure

Trade was reported to go down between 2008 and 2009; between 2009 and 2010, trade increased

Decline in trade was caused by change in weather conditions & existence of restrictive trade policies

Constraints to trade: poor infrastructure; NTBs

There is need to mobilise resources for financing trade facilitation within the region: MIS, data infrastructure

Thank you for listening