Value Chains
Storage Losses and Seasonal Price Dispersion in Cowpea Markets
Post-harvest loss estimates paired with trader surveys explain wedge patterns between farm-gate and wholesale prices across the Sahel.
Overview
Post-harvest loss estimates paired with trader surveys explain wedge patterns between farm-gate and wholesale prices across the Sahel.
Measured storage losses explain a minority of seasonal wedges; credit constraints and inventory risk dominate at the trader tier.
Advanced Economic Research
Key insight · Agricultural Economics (2024)
Key findings
- Interventions that only subsidize sacks without addressing trader working capital show limited pass-through to producers.
Market structure
Cowpea moves through layered assembly markets with thin inventories.
We document how traders’ opportunity cost of capital shapes the harvest–lean season spread independent of on-farm losses.
Methods
Loss audits at cooperative stores are paired with trader ledger reconstruction and spatial price panels.
A decomposition attributes wedges to observable loss, inventory financing, and unobserved quality sorting.
Interventions that only subsidize sacks without addressing trader working capital show limited pass-through to producers.
Advanced Economic Research
Value Chains · 2024
