IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/wp-2014-119.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Rise of a Middle Class in East and Southern Africa: Implications for Food System Transformation

Author

Listed:
  • David Tschirley
  • Thomas Reardon
  • Michael Dolislager
  • Jason Snyder

Abstract

We examine the implications of the rise of a middle class in East and Southern Africa for food consumption patterns and the food system. A unique classification of food items shows that highly processed food has one-third of the purchased food market, with comparable shares in rural and urban areas (31 per cent vs 35 per cent), and among the vulnerable and upper middle classes (33 per cent vs 41 per cent). By linking FAOSTAT import data to consumption bundles, we show that the net import share falls with income in urban areas. Implications for food system change to 2040 are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • David Tschirley & Thomas Reardon & Michael Dolislager & Jason Snyder, 2014. "The Rise of a Middle Class in East and Southern Africa: Implications for Food System Transformation," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2014-119, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2014-119
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/wp2014-119.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Birdsall, N. & Graham, C. & Pettinato, S., 2000. "Stuck in the Tunnel: Is Globalization Muddling the Middle Class?," Papers 14, Brookings Institution - Working Papers.
    2. Bart Minten, 2008. "The Food Retail Revolution in Poor Countries: Is It Coming or Is It Over?," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(4), pages 767-789, July.
    3. John Humphrey, 2007. "The supermarket revolution in developing countries: tidal wave or tough competitive struggle?," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 7(4), pages 433-450, July.
    4. Tschirley, David L. & Ayieko, Miltone W. & Hichaambwa, Munguzwe & Goeb, Joey & Loescher, Wayne, 2010. "Modernizing Africa’s Fresh Produce Supply Chains without Rapid Supermarket Takeover: Towards a Definition of Research and Investment Priorities," Food Security International Development Working Papers 93030, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    5. Easterly, William, 2001. "The Middle Class Consensus and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 6(4), pages 317-335, December.
    6. Ronelle Burger & Cindy Lee Steenekamp & Servaas van der Berg & Asmus Zoch, 2014. "The middle class in contemporary South Africa: Comparing rival approaches," Working Papers 11/2014, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    7. World Bank, 2009. "Geography in Motion: World Development Report 2009 (excerpt)," Transnational Corporations Review, Ottawa United Learning Academy, vol. 1(3), pages 40-46, September.
    8. Woldu, Thomas & Abebe, Girum & Lamoot, Indra & Minten, Bart, 2013. "Urban food retail in Africa: The case of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia," ESSP working papers 50, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    9. Luc Christiaensen & Joachim Weerdt & Yasuyuki Todo, 2013. "Urbanization and poverty reduction: the role of rural diversification and secondary towns," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 44(4-5), pages 435-447, July.
    10. Bart Minten & Thomas Reardon, 2008. "Food Prices, Quality, and Quality's Pricing in Supermarkets versus Traditional Markets in Developing Countries ," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 30(3), pages 480-490.
    11. Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo, 2008. "What Is Middle Class about the Middle Classes around the World?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 22(2), pages 3-28, Spring.
    12. Thomas Reardon & C. Peter Timmer & Christopher B. Barrett & Julio Berdegué, 2003. "The Rise of Supermarkets in Africa, Asia, and Latin America," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 85(5), pages 1140-1146.
    13. Birdsall, Nancy, 2007. "Reflections on the Macro Foundations of the Middle Class in the Developing World," Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, Working Paper Series qt4nt1n232, Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, UC Santa Cruz.
    14. Elizabeth M.M.Q. Farina & Rubens Nunes & Guilherme F. de A Monteiro, 2005. "Supermarkets and their impacts on the agrifood system of Brazil: The competition among retailers," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(2), pages 133-147.
    15. Nancy Birdsall, 2010. "The (Indispensable) Middle Class in Developing Countries; or, The Rich and the Rest, Not the Poor and the Rest," Working Papers 207, Center for Global Development.
    16. Reardon, Thomas & Timmer, C. Peter, 2007. "Transformation of Markets for Agricultural Output in Developing Countries Since 1950: How Has Thinking Changed?," Handbook of Agricultural Economics, in: Robert Evenson & Prabhu Pingali (ed.), Handbook of Agricultural Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 55, pages 2807-2855, Elsevier.
    17. Haggblade, Steven & Longabaugh, Steven & Boughton, Duncan & Dembele, Niama Nango & Diallo, Boubacar Cisse & Staatz, John M. & Tschirley, David L., 2012. "Staple Food Market Sheds in West Africa," Food Security International Development Working Papers 121866, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. David Tschirley & Thomas Reardon & Michael Dolislager & Jason Snyder, 2015. "The Rise of a Middle Class in East and Southern Africa: Implications for Food System Transformation," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(5), pages 628-646, July.
    2. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2021. "Income Levels, Governance and Inclusive Human Development in Sub-Saharan Africa," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 16(1), pages 71-103, February.
    3. Woldu, Thomas & Abebe, Girum & Lamoot, Indra & Minten, Bart, 2013. "Urban food retail in Africa: The case of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia," ESSP working papers 50, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    4. Reham Rizk & Ricardo Nogales, 2017. "Revisiting the Middle-Class Myth: Evidence From A Cross-Country Analysis of African Social Progress," Working Papers 1139, Economic Research Forum, revised 09 2003.
    5. Gómez, Miguel I. & Ricketts, Katie D., 2013. "Food value chain transformations in developing countries: Selected hypotheses on nutritional implications," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 139-150.
    6. Oasis Kodila-Tedika & Simplice A. Asongu & Julio Mukendi Kayembe, 2016. "Middle Class in Africa: Determinants and Consequences," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(4), pages 527-549, October.
    7. Simplice A Asongu & Sara Le Roux, 2019. "Understanding Sub-Saharan Africa’s Extreme Poverty Tragedy," International Journal of Public Administration, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(6), pages 457-467, April.
    8. Berrou, Jean-Philippe & Clément, Matthieu & Combarnous, François & Darbon, Dominique & Fauré, Yves-André, 2020. "Anatomy of the Brazilian middle class: identification, behaviours and expectations," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), April.
    9. Simplice A. Asongu & Sara le Roux, 2018. "Understanding Sub-Saharan Africa’s Extreme Poverty Tragedy," Research Africa Network Working Papers 18/012, Research Africa Network (RAN).
    10. Florencia Torche & Luis F. Lopez-Calva, 2013. "Stability and Vulnerability of the Latin American Middle Class," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(4), pages 409-435, December.
    11. Huynh, Phu. & Kapsos, Steven., 2013. "Economic class and labour market inclusion poor and middle class workers in developing Asia and the Pacific," ILO Working Papers 994822963402676, International Labour Organization.
    12. Alejandro Guarín, 2013. "The Value of Domestic Supply Chains: Producers, Wholesalers, and Urban Consumers in Colombia," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 31(5), pages 511-530, September.
    13. Abebe Shimeles & Mthuli Ncube, 2015. "The Making of the Middle-Class in Africa: Evidence from DHS Data," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(2), pages 178-193, February.
    14. Assefa, Thomas Woldu & Minten, Bart, 2015. "Can agricultural traders be trusted? Evidence from urban coffee markets in Ethiopia:," ESSP working papers 72, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    15. Minten, Bart & Reardon, Thomas & Sutradhar, Rajib, 2010. "Food Prices and Modern Retail: The Case of Delhi," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(12), pages 1775-1787, December.
    16. Simplice Asongu & Joseph Nnanna, 2020. "Inclusive human development in sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 14(2), pages 183-200, May.
    17. Florencia Torche & Luis F. Lopez-Calva, 2013. "Stability and Vulnerability of the Latin American Middle Class," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(4), pages 409-435, December.
    18. Minten, Bart & Reardon, Thomas & Vandeplas, Anneleen, 2009. "Linking urban consumers and rural farmers in India: A comparison of traditional and modern food supply chains," IFPRI discussion papers 883, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    19. Vyacheslav Bobkov & Peter Herrmann & Igor Kolmakov & Yelena Odintsova, 2018. "Two-Criterion Model of the Russian Society Stratification by Income and Housing Security," Economy of region, Centre for Economic Security, Institute of Economics of Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, vol. 1(4), pages 1061-1075.
    20. repec:ilo:ilowps:482296 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Durr-e-Nayab, 2011. "Estimating the Middle Class in Pakistan," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 50(1), pages 1-28.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2014-119. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Siméon Rapin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/widerfi.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.