Heterogeneities in landed costs of traded grains and oilseeds contribute to unequal access to food

Abstract

Despite the growing accessibility of international grain and oilseed markets, high production costs and trade frictions are still prevalent, contributing to regional heterogeneities in the landed cost of grain imports. Here we quantify the landed cost for six grain commodities across 3,500 administrative regions, capturing regional cost differences to produce grain and transport it across international borders. We find large heterogeneities in the costs of imported grain, which are highest in Oceania, Central America and landlocked Africa. While some regions have uniform landed costs across sourcing locations, others face cost variations across trading partners, showing large inequalities in access. We find that most regions could benefit from a targeted approach to reduce landed cost while others benefit from a mixed strategies approach. Our results highlight that spatial information on production, trade and transport is essential to inform policies aiming to build an efficient and resilient global agricultural commodity trade system. The cost of transporting agricultural products from the field to consumers across borders, also known as the landed cost, is highly influenced by trade frictions and regional cost differences. This study estimates this cost—including production, transport and trade components—for six grain commodities across 3,500 administrative regions, revealing large inequalities in access.