Analysis of Agri-Food Trade Structures
To Promote Agri-Food Trade Networks
In the Islamic Countries
39
The conclusion for the above figures is that there is no single trade network among OIC countries
in agricultural products. Rather there are specific inter-regional linkages that are of importance
for particular products, but they do not generalize even across all leading product categories.
Moreover, exports to non-OIC countries are very important for most regional groups and most
product categories. In part, this reflects the fact that geographical entities like Africa and Asia
have economic coherence but include OIC member countries as well as non-member countries.
This geographical coherence is increasingly supported by formal trade agreements, which lead
to lower trade costs between some OIC member countries and selected non-members. This
effect is on top of geographical proximity, which serves to reduce trade costs. In the case of the
Arab region in particular, there are also linkages with neighboring non-OIC regions, such as the
EU. As a result of these factors, the intra-regional trade links referred to in the analysis of the
global trade network in Chapter 2 still holds true, but tends to link OIC and non-OIC countries
within the same geographical entity.
These insights are confirmed by an analysis of the average distance of exports for leading
products (Table 9). Results are presented as an export-weighted average of the distance
between exporters and importers by exporting regional group. For the African Group, a
comparison of 2005 and 2016 results shows that average distance has typically increased
markedly, which is consistent with the increasing importance of trade links with Asia, previously
referred to. Even though the importance of non-OIC trade is substantial for the other two groups
as well as Africa, average distance has not changed much for them in the last decade, and has
even decreased for a significant number of product categories. These results are consistent with
an increasingly inter-regional trade network for agricultural products in Africa, but sustained
importance of intra-regional links elsewhere. It is also consistent with a significant proportion
of non-OIC trade taking place within regions as understood geographically, but covering OIC and
non-OIC countries alike.
Table 9: Average Distance of Exports, by Leading Product, OIC Regional Groups, 2005 and
2016, Km
African Group Arab Group Asian Group
2005 2016 2005 2016 2005 2016
Live animals 1649 973 1212 1195 861 866
Tobacco 2649 4305 1656 1577 3984 3475
Oil seeds 3809 8656 4326 2230 2848 3359
Crude rubber 5268 5630 3692 3952 9624 8423
Cork and wood 6391 7903 1072 2190 5770 5886
Rice 875 7512 2015 2066 4797 4574
Vegetables 2251 3806 1534 1969 2229 2039
Fruit and nuts 6317 7168 2387 2691 2748 2956
Coffee 4600 5950 3109 2640 9788 7425
Other edible products 1149 1650 2045 2330 3585 4144
Cotton 7432 8437 4264 4324 3555 3942
Bread products 1138 1175 2424 1427 3275 3463
Palm oil 2076 8312 1611 1324 6372 6697
Fish and crustaceans 5177 5832 3962 3859 8267 7383
Cocoa and chocolate 6263 6088 1620 1540 7523 6449
Rest of 06 3029 1827 2330 2624 2397 3614
Rest of 04 2954 6075 1559 1912 8692 8521
Source: Authors’ calculations based on UN Comtrade Data. Note: Average distances are weighted by export flows.