While curbing the spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), lockdown policies and “stay-at-home” restrictions caused massive supply chain disruptions worldwide. This led to breaks in spatial market integration, which could further lead to market inefficiency and resource misallocation. Taking daily price data from 2016 to 2021, this study investigates COVID-19's effect on the spatial market integration of fish in China using cointegration tests. We find a high degree of spatial market integration for fish in China before the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, our results show that COVID-19's effect on the spatial market integration of fish varies spatially in China. Specifically, COVID-19 reduces the degree of spatial market integration in most provinces, especially those with high infection rates. Meanwhile, the degree of spatial market integration in provinces with low infection rates remains high. Therefore, the government should be regionally specific when formulating market recovery policies.
This brief addresses the rationale and priorities for investments in trade in livestock and other agricultural commodities such as market development and access, cross-border trade, and sanitary, phytosanitary and food safety standards, to build resilience in the drylands.
It should be noted at the outset that livestock trade functions reasonably well in the Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD) countries. As shown by the impressive growth in the volume and value of trade in livestock and animal products in the region since 2001, markets are functioning reasonably well. A rough estimate is that trade in livestock and livestock products in the IGAD countries (Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan) equals USD 1 billion or more in foreign exchange in many years, and probably 5–6 times that amount in local currencies. Live animal and meat exports, especially from Ethiopia, Somalia/Somaliland and Sudan, have increased rapidly as has domestic trade centred on key urban markets such as Addis Ababa, Khartoum, Mombasa and Nairobi. Much of what we suggest in this brief describes actions that can be taken to ensure that producers in the lowlands of the Horn benefit from growing trade opportunities.
This paper addresses informal cross-border trade in the Horn of Africa, with an emphasis on the Somalia borderlands. It will be shown that despite the collapse of a government in 1991, Somalia’s unofficial exports of cattle to Kenya have grown considerably during the past 13 years. It will be argued that while informal exports and imports of animals are illegal in Kenya and Ethiopia, local institutions and agreements allow the trade to function ‘on the ground’ in the absence of official recognition. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of informal cross-border commerce in regions of weak administrative control.