Assessing the role of market integration in the consumption of traditional foods in Benin: a joint price instability coefficient and diet composition approach

Abstract

Globalization-driven food trade policies and the transformations of food regimes have led to modernizing food habits and the growing substitution of traditional foods by introduced/industrialized foods in the diets of urban people in sub-Saharan Africa. Such changes in food consumption habits are suspected to be associated with the increasing prevalence of some non-transmittable food-related diseases in the region. The role food markets play in food substitution in the diets needs to be understood. This study analyzes the effects of differential market integration on the consumption of the two types of foods in Southern Benin. Market integration was assessed using the reciprocal of the gap in price instability coefficients between markets (G) and calculated using monthly prices series over the "July 2009-July 2011" period. The findings indicate that markets in the Allada market cluster are more integrated for introduced foods (G = 5.3) than traditional foods (G = 4.3). The integration of primary, assembly, and rural consumer markets with the Bohicon regional market is by far higher for introduced foods (G = 5.3) than traditional foods (G = 1.2). The results in Toffo market cluster were comparable, in spite of less reliable data. The district-level rural markets are more integrated among themselves than with the regional market, either for traditional foods or introduced foods. Considering that most of the latter are processed foods, the result tends to indicate that food processing would trigger greater market integration. Therefore, policies that promote processing and trade of locally produced traditional foods should be implemented. Indeed, processing is key among the factors that increase urban consumers' preferences for introduced foods against traditional foods. On the contrary, the hypothesis which asserts that low levels of market integration among traditional foods contribute to their disappearance in people's diets is rejected. Indeed, diets in rural areas of Benin are still dominated by "traditional foods." However, the growing trend in the consumption of imported low nutritional value foods should be controlled by appropriate food production and trade policies.

Price Transmission and Factors Influencing the Price of Onions in Tanzania

“…Several studies have been carried out to assess the transmission of price variations between farmers and wholesalers and between wholesalers and retailers on different types of agricultural products [12][13][14][15]. Onyuma et al [12], Jayasinghe-Mudalige [13] and Honfoga et al [16] found that retailers' responses to a price increase at the wholesale level were faster than their responses to price decrease, while price decrease at the wholesaler was transmitted more quickly to farmers than the rise. They also found that price changes at the upstream level influence price decisions at the wholesale and retail levels.…”

Using BiVO4/CuO-Based Photoelectrocatalyzer for 4-Nitrophenol Degradation

“…Activities conducted in agricultural industry can be divided into two different sectors: agricultural and livestock sectors. The first sector has high economic importance in terms of sustainability and trade balance between consumer and producer countries [3][4][5]. To attend the internal demand and exportation needs, producer countries invest in measures that enhance productivity by reducing losses associated with diseases and pests that affect crop production [6].…”

Assessing food attributes and marketing services of private restaurants on the campus of University of Abomey-Calavi, Benin

“…The dependency of African States on imported foods from overseas is growing, while domestic food production Is low or lacking rewarding market outlets. The issues of market participation (Bellon et al, 2016;Zamasiya et al, 2014), market access (Chamberlin and Jayne, 2012) with market integration (Baulch, 1997 Honfoga et al, 2018) and structure-conductperformance (Adegbola et al, 2016) have have been brought back to the attention of policy-makers in Africa, with the aim of improving trade policies for better access of consumers to food. Considering the adverse effects of the 2008 food-and-oil crisis on the continent, the debate on the role of agricultural trade on Africa"s food security and economic development has gained recently a renewed attention.…”