Siehe FAO Report seite 1 ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/009/a0782e/a0782e01.pdf
FAO (= Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations)
Auswirkungen
4.2 Impact on Prices and Domestic Production
Food imports have been shown to reduce domestic food prices, stifle domestic food production and act as a
disincentive to farmers and hence reduce food production in importing countries. In Kenya, before the
1990?s, food imports were low since food consumption was almost commensurate with domestic food
production. However, after 1992 imports have been high because of the decline in domestic production. The
largest amounts of imports constitute cereals, sugar and dairy products from developed countries that include
the USA, EU and Australia. These are countries where food production is highly subsidized and pose a threat to domestic production of food commodities in Kenya. (!!!!!!!!!!!)
Subsidized food import enters Kenya at low prices, forcing domestic prices to decline, hence threatening
domestic production of food commodities. Cheap food imports reduce the market for domestic agricultural
products and leave many farmers and workers in agricultural related industries without a source of income
unless they are able to switch to production that is more profitable (Nyangito 2001). This means that even if
low-cost food supplies are plentiful, many people will be unable to purchase them. This is particularly so
when the imports dampen domestic producers prices thereby reducing incentives to produce. Food imports
represent unfair competition to domestic producers since they increase supply and lower prices in the markets
(Schuh, 1982). Food aid may have some rather serious disincentives on domestic agricultural production
especially when such food aid is used primarily as a means of dumping excess produce abroad. At times in
Kenya, imported food commodities such as maize, rice and sugar have been far much cheaper than the locally
produced ones. In such cases domestic producers have been unable to offload their produce to the local
market since the prices offered do not cover their costs of production.
Food imports distort labor markets especially where the country is highly dependent on agriculture as a
source of employment (Todaro, 1960). Since agriculture in such areas is perceived to be low paying, less
labor will be devoted to agricultural production and this is likely to dampen agricultural production. The labor
is then shifted to the non-agricultural sectors (high level of rural to urban migration) as such ventures are
supposed to yield higher income that can be used to buy cheap imported food. This is particularly important
in Kenya where the labor force is affected by HIV/AIDS. Cheap import also shifts demand towards imported
non-traditional foodstuffs because tastes and preferences change as they get used to imported foods. This is
reflected in the stagnation of traditional crop production as a result of rapid expansion of demand for nontraditional
crops such as wheat (Figure 12).
In Kenya, growing dependence on food import contrasts sharply with stagnation in fertilizer import. As
shown in Figure 12, the quantity of fertilizer imported stayed well below 200,000 MT between 1990 and
2002, while cereal import rose to 1,600,000 MT in 1997 (over 8 times the quantity of fertilizer import). In
2001, Kenya imported over 600,000 MT of wheat, nearly three times the quantity of fertilizer imported to the
country. It appears that the food gap in Kenya would have been met from domestic production if only
fertilizer equivalent to about a fourth of the volume of cereal brought to the country was imported (assuming
that a quintal of fertilizer would increase cereal production by about four quintals).
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