Food marketing margins during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from vegetables in Ethiopia

Published on the Value chains knowledge portal on 25 August, this blog summarizes an IFPRI publication which assessed changes in farm and consumer prices of four major vegetables (tomatoes, onions, green peppers, cabbages) and the contribution of different segments of the rural-urban value chain in urban retail price formation in Ethiopia. It identified large, but heterogeneous, price changes for different vegetables with relatively larger changes seen at the farm level, compared to the consumer level, leading to winners and losers among local vegetable farmers due to pandemic-related trade disruptions. Despite substantial hurdles in domestic trade reported by most value chain agents, increases in marketing – and especially transport – costs have not been the major contributor to overall changes in retail prices. Marketing margins even declined for half of the vegetables studied. The relatively small changes in marketing margins overall indicate the resilience of these domestic value chains during the pandemic in Ethiopia.