Improving Agricultural Market Performance:
Creation and Development of Market Institutions
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of Agriculture. The function of these Ministries or directorates has typically been to
control prices and quality of food staples as well as to distribute subsidized
commodities.
o Palestine had a Ministry of Supply, which was merged into the Ministry of
National Economy as the Consumer Protection Department.
o Egypt has a Ministry of Supply and Internal Trading, which in addition to the
functions mentioned above, also operates retail stores where subsidized
commodities are sold.
o Jordan’s Ministry of Supply was established in 1974 to administer subsidies on
politically sensitive goods. Its main activity was to regulate the price of bread
by selling discounted wheat to millers, who then sold flour to bakeries at a
subsidized price, regulated by the Ministry. Though it began to reduce the
subsidy in 2008, Jordan’s 2016 budget included US$300 million, or about 4%
of total spending for bread subsidies alone.115
o Pakistan Storage and Supplies Corporation (PASSCO), is responsible for
procuring wheat up to a target amount, after which the private sector may
procure wheat. “The Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP), under the federal
Ministry of Commerce, on advice from the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and
Livestock (MINFAL), imports wheat, fertilizers, and occasionally other food
commodities such as sugar and pulses.” 116
 Ministries of Health and Safety – As noted in the earlier section of this Chapter, food
institutions in many nations began with the establishment of either or both safety or
agriculture legislation. As a result, these two usually have the most established
Government institutions with regards to food markets.
o Well over half of the nations of the OIC (but not all) have one or more of the
following:
 Ministry of Food & Consumer Protection
 Ministry of Environment
 Ministry of Health/Public Health Directorate
o In each case, the Ministry to a greater or lesser extent translates legislation
into executable regulations with regards to food production and testing. The
institutional bandwidth for carrying out this mandate varies greatly among the
OIC Member Countries.
 Inter-Ministerial Bodies – These are often tasked with coordinating policies and
strategies across multiple Ministries and, often, other Government institutions.
o Burkina Faso’s Secrétariat Permanent de la Coordination des Politiques
Sectorielles Agricoles (SP-CPSA) or Permanent Secretariat for Coordination of
Agriculture Sector Policies is an interministerial body charged with
115 Khraishy, M. (2015), “Exporter Guide: Market Overview and Guide to Jordanian Market Requirements,” U.S. Department
of Agriculture, Foreign Agriculture Service, available at
accessed
May 2017].
116 USAID (2009), Pakistan’s Food and Agriculture Systems, available a
[Accessed May 2017].