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Subsidized food prices could prevent atypical increases in staple food prices through the lean season

  • Key Message Update
  • Burkina Faso
  • March 2021
Subsidized food prices could prevent atypical increases in staple food prices through the lean season

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  • Key Messages
  • Key Messages
    • Cereal availability remains below average across most markets due to localized production deficits and atypically high institutional demand. In addition, breweries and poultry feed factories, faced with rising world corn prices and import barriers, have turned to the local market. Cereal prices are generally between 5 and 20 percent above average. The ongoing operations to sell cereals at subsidized prices and distribute 30,000 tonnes of cereals to 747,000 people from April onwards could help reduce household demand in the markets and prevent atypical price increases until the end of the lean season in September.

    • In the northern and eastern areas of the country, more than 80 percent of households reported having less animals to sell on the markets (SAP / ENSAN, March 2021) due to previous looting and destocking. This reduces the incomes of internally displaced populations (IDPs) and poor host households and limits their ability to make purchases as in a normal year, despite favorable terms of trade for livestock / cereals due to the above average prices of small ruminants. In addition, insecurity continues to limit movement and access to gold mining sites and increased competition for the supply of day- labor in areas of high IDP presence further limits income earning opportunities.

    • Community transmissions of COVID-19 are on the decline in the country (198 active cases as of March 26). However, land borders remain closed, forcing seasonal migrants to pay more transport costs to bypass official crossings to coastal countries. Remittances to departure areas are below average due to sluggish economic activity in urban centers and host countries.

    • While the majority of households have an average of two meals a day, low stocks and declining purchasing power constrain household food access for those in the northern half of the country (provinces of the Center-North and Sahel regions and Loroum province in the North), and many turn to reducing the quantity and quality of meals. In these areas, IDPs and poor households face consumption deficits or have to engage in negative coping strategies, exposing them to Crisis (IPC Phase 3) acute food insecurity.

    This Key Message Update provides a high-level analysis of current acute food insecurity conditions and any changes to FEWS NET's latest projection of acute food insecurity outcomes in the specified geography. Learn more here.

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