Improving Agricultural Market Performance:
Creation and Development of Market Institutions
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Chapter 5 – Country Case Studies
The ultimate objective of this Chapter is to present three country case studies from which
lessons learned in each case country can be scaled up so that collaboration among OIC Member
Countries could be fostered in economic as well as commercial terms. Hence, every country
case study is reviewed in a consistent manner, thereby using the following structure:
1. Overview of agricultural and food sectors and markets – Brief exploration of the five
stages of the country’s agricultural and food market as well as agricultural policy and
institutional framework.
2. Agricultural and food market institutions – Review and description of selected
agricultural and food market institutions as per the classification of the Conceptual
Framework.
3. Effectiveness of agricultural and food market institutions – Review of available
evidence, data, and statics on the performance of the selected institutions of the
previous section.
4. Need assessment analysis – Identification of current bottlenecks in the country’s
agricultural market system and how newly created market institutions and/or
redeveloped existing market institutions may resolve these.
5. Conclusions and lessons learned – Review of the key observations and conclusions of
the previous sections and brief roadmap of implications.
Before turning to the three country case studies (Section 5.2 to 5.4), it is important to
understand why the three country case studies have been selected out of all OIC Member
Countries and on which criteria (Section 5.1). Finally, one country case study of a non-OIC
Member Country has been added, namely South Africa (Section 5.5), to approach agricultural
market institutions from a different angle.
5.1 Selection of Case Study Countries
It is desirable to select one country from each of the three geographical groups of the OIC (i.e.
African, Arab, and Asian), and also to select countries at different levels of development (least-
developed, lower-middle to middle income, and upper-middle to upper income) and with
different international trade positions (e.g. net importer or net exporter of agricultural and
food products).
However, it is a complex task to narrow down the list of OIC Member Countries given the great
degree of diversity and heterogeneity. This does not only relate to the agricultural and food
market of each country but certainly also to the socio-economic composition, demography,
geography, geology and fertility, economic stability, and political stability. Each of these
aspects impacts the performance and nature of the agricultural and food market as well as
food availability, access, and security.