Assessment of Namibian Agricultural export diversification and trade complementarity
Loading...
Date
2022-09
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Namibia University of Science and Technology
Abstract
The reliance of Namibia on primary commodities and their unstable prices has left the country vulnerable to external price shocks, thus the need for appropriate agricultural trade research. This study was carried out to fill this gap by providing quantitative information regarding agricultural export diversification and trade complementarity. Specifically, the study measured the export diversification of the Namibian agricultural sector (export basket and trade destinations), analysed the trade complementarity of Namibia and trade destinations, and estimated the intensity of agricultural trade with trade destinations.
To meet these objectives, the normalised Hirschman- Herfindahl index (NHHI), trade complementarity index (TCI) and trade intensity index (TII) were used to compute diversification, complementarity, and intensity respectively. The study used secondary data on the exports and imports of 19 agricultural commodity groups from 2000 to 2020 obtained from the UN COMTRADE database. Twenty trade destinations comprising ten African countries (Malawi, Mauritius, Botswana, Cameroon, Tanzania, Lesotho, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) and ten non-African countries (United States of America, United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, Bulgaria, China, Netherlands, Belgium, United Arab Emirates, and Brazil). The 19 agricultural commodities at SITC digit-3 level have been selected by considering their contribution to Namibia's export and import basket and the sample makes up the whole agricultural sector and the availability of data.
In addition, trade destinations were selected based on the top percentage shares in exports and imports of Namibia's agricultural commodities. The results indicated that the Namibia agricultural sector exhibited a fair diversification in terms of the export basket, but it is highly concentrated in terms of destination/market. For trade complementarity, Namibia is strongly complementary with the selected trade destinations except for the Democratic Republic of Congo. Namibia intensively traded with South Africa (4.90%), Zimbabwe (1.44%), Zambia (3.92%), and Botswana (14.47%) as the rest of the trade destinations registered a TII value of less than 1. The study recommends that Namibia increases trade in the following commodities: live animals, Meat and Meat preparations and Fish and also increase bilateral trade between African trade partners, especially Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Additionally, there is a need for the Namibian government to substantially intervene in the export promotion activities to oversee the agricultural practices in the exports sectors with stimulation mechanism to increase Namibian export and attention should be focused on identifying realistic export
xi
opportunities for Namibia to boost and diversified agricultural export to trade destinations through research and development.
Description
A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the
award of a degree of Master of Agribusiness Management
In the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resource Sciences
Faculty of Health, Natural Resources and Applied Science
Namibia University of Science and Technology
Windhoek, Namibia
Keywords
Export diversification, Trade Complementarity, Trade intensity
Citation
Kandjii, C. D. (2022). Assessment of Namibian Agricultural export diversification and trade complementarity [Unpublished master's thesis]. Namibia University of Science and Technology.