The Challenge of Substituting Sunflower Oil for Imported Palm Oil: Evidence from Tanzania

Michael Olabisi (), David Tschirley (), David Nyange and Titus Awokuse

No 275677, Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy Research Papers from Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security (FSP)

Abstract: ABSTRACT Edible oil imports to Africa grew over 10% per year from 2006 to 2015, and accounted for 34% of the continent’s total growth in food imports over this period—the highest share of any food group. In the same period, several African countries experienced a boom in the local production and processing of oil-seeds. The combination of import growth and domestic production booms reveals a gap in the literature on the characteristics of edible oil demand in Africa. We begin to fill this gap by estimating own-price, cross-price, and expenditure elasticities of demand for palm, sunflower, and other edible oils in Tanzania. We apply a QUAIDS model to detailed household level data-focusing on palm and sunflower oil, because for the most part, palm oil is imported and sunflower is domestically produced. Our main finding is a surprisingly low level of substitution between the domestic and imported edible oils. Simulated budget shares from our estimates suggest that a 10% tariff increase on palm oil leads to less than a 0.06% change in the budget share of domestically produced sunflower oil. We identify other potential policy implications from our findings and highlight steps for further research.

Keywords: Agricultural and Food Policy; Demand and Price Analysis; Food Security and Poverty; International Development; International Relations/Trade (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38
Date: 2018-05-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-dev
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:miffrp:275677

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.275677

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