Liberalisation du commerce et integration spatiale des marches: Le cas du mais au Togo

Abstract

The cereal market of Togo was liberalized in 1987. This policy aims to improve markets' spatial integration through the development of arbitrage. The paper assesses the extent of maize market spatial integration in order to understand how it has been affected by price liberalization. The monthly retail maize prices collected on 13 markets for the period from 1980 to 2001 are considered. The results show that the impact of price liberalization on markets integration is moderate. The liberalization has not significantly improved the extent of long-run and short-run integration of maize markets. The speed of price adjustment is relatively weak for most of the markets. In order to improve market efficiency, it is suggested that the government should create a market information service (SIM) which will be entrusted in collecting and disseminating weekly cereal prices all over the country.Résumé: En 1987, la commercialisation des céréales aété libéralisée au Togo. Le but visé par cette politique est d'améliorer l'intégration spatiale des marchésà travers un développement de l'arbitrage. Le papierévalue le niveau de l'intégration spatiale des marchés du maïs afin de comprendre comment celle-ci aété affectée par la libéralisation des prix. Les prix de détail mensuels de maïs collectés sur 13 marchés pour la période 1980-2001 sont considérés. Il ressort des résultats obtenus, que l'impact de la libéralisation des prix sur l'intégration des marchés de maïs est mitigé. La libéralisation n'a pas amélioré de manière significative le niveau de l'intégration de long terme et de court terme des marchés. La vitesse d'ajustement des prix est relativement lente pour la majorité des marchés. En vue d'améliorer l'efficacité du fonctionnement des marchés, il est suggéré que l'Etat mette en place un Système d'Information sur les Marchés (SIM). Cet organe sera

Information Service and Integration of Maize Markets in Togo

“…Table 6 shows that long-term adjustment prices speeds λ represented by the coefficients of P (−1) is significant for all markets but below the ideal value of −1. For the majority of markets, λ is less than 0.50, indicating that the dysfunction of the maize market, already mentioned by Yovo and Homevoh [2] persists. Dissemination of prices did not improve markets performance.…”

“…Yovo and Homevoh [2] had already highlighted the role of information in the agricultural products trade is particularly important in Togo because of the great variability in agricultural prices due to the problem of price transmission between urban and rural markets and the problem of market segmentation between the northern and the southern part of the country. In fact, with a stretched form, the country makes 600 km of length and only 26 km of east-west maximum width.…”