International comparison of agricultural exports : South Africa and the Cairns Groups

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The study addresses two important research questions which are in essence motivated by thetrade policy reform that took effect in the 1990s to reverse decades of inward industrialisationstrategies towards outward industrialisation strategies to promote economic growth anddevelopment. This raised the expectation that a movement away from low-demand growthproducts towards commodities with stronger demand growth and buoyant price trends wouldbe encouraged.The first central question that this study addresses is the extent to which South Africanagricultural exports are moving up the value chain relative to the agricultural exports of theother members of the Cairns Group. The second research question that the study addresses isto determine whether South Africa's movement up the value chain (value adding activities) inagricultural exports is more competitive than the other members of the Cairns Group. Toadequately address the first research question data from the Food and AgriculturalOrganisation (FAO), Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS) and World TradeOrganisation (WTO) databases were used to examine their trade perspectives. The secondresearch question was addressed by applying Relative Comparative Advantage (RTA) usingdata from the FAOSTAT 2002 to determine each country's competitive status in selectedagro- food chains.The results show that South Africa managed to surpass all other members of the CairnsGroup, except Chile, Philippines and Bolivia, whose export structures are highly dominatedby high-value products relative to South Africa in terms of the movement up the value chainin agricultural exports. This is the case despite the fact that countries such as Argentina,Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Indonesia, New Zealand, Thailand and Uruguay havemanaged to increase their percentage export value of high-value agricultural products and thatSouth Africa has experienced a decrease in the percentage export value of high-valueproducts. The results also clearly show that the food chains in Costa Rica, Paraguay, Thailandand South Africa are generally marginally competitive, whilst the food chains in Canada,Chile, Colombia, Indonesia and Uruguay are only just marginally competitive as many oftheir RTA values are situated around zero. The food chains in Guatemala, Malaysia, NewZealand and Philippines are internationally uncompetitive. And the food chains in Argentina,Australia and Brazil are internationally competitive. The analysis also reveals thatcompetitiveness decreases in all these countries when moving from primary to processedproducts in the agro-food chains which implies that value-adding opportunities areconstrained.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University