Abstract
International agri-food trade has expanded rapidly during the past decades and changed considerably in structure with important implications, especially for developing economies. One of the main environmental concerns regarding international trade is the exploitation and redistribution of water resources. In this paper, we use the virtual water approach for analyzing the relationship between global agri-food trade, its structure and virtual water flows in the period of 1986–2011. Specifically, for five regions and the world, we calculate growth rates of interregional trade values and virtual water volumes, the contribution of different product groups to trade and the economic water efficiency of imports and exports. Our findings show that, over time, trade values have generally increased more rapidly than virtual water volumes. In Africa and Southern America, virtual water outflows have roughly quadrupled since 1986. In all regions, staples and industrial products account for the largest share in virtual water trade. The recent shift towards high-value exports is beneficial for low-income countries from a regional economic water efficiency perspective due to high trade values and low associated virtual water volumes. Economic water efficiency of trade has increased in all regions since 2000 and the return to virtual water outflows is especially high in Europe.
Highlights
International trade in agricultural and food products has increased sharply during the past decades, mainly due to increased trade liberalization, population growth, urbanization and changing diets [1].Between 1985 and 2011, the total value of agricultural exports has tripled in real terms, from around250 billion USD to more than 750 billion USD, measured in constant 1990 prices [2]
virtual water (VW) flows have been calculated for each region as the sum of product trade flows multiplied with the respective annual product- and country-specific water footprint (WF) of production
We have focused on interregional agri-food trade and analyzed the relationship between trade values and VW flows
Summary
International trade in agricultural and food products has increased sharply during the past decades, mainly due to increased trade liberalization, population growth, urbanization and changing diets [1].Between 1985 and 2011, the total value of agricultural exports has tripled in real terms, from around250 billion USD to more than 750 billion USD, measured in constant 1990 prices [2]. Whereas European countries still account for the largest share of world food exports, other regions are increasingly included in global trade, and especially agri-food exports from low- and middle-income countries in Africa, Asia and South America are expanding rapidly. The sharp expansion of agri-food trade coincides with important changes in the structure of trade [3]. High-value food products (including fruits, vegetables, and products from animal origin) are gaining importance in total agri-food trade; their share in total agri-food export value increased from 32% in 1980 to 41% in 2010 [2]. The structure of agri-food exports changed most dramatically in low- and middle-income economies where high-value products replaced tropical commodities as the main agri-food export category [3,4,5,6]. The expansion of agri-food trade and the changing trade pattern have important implications, especially for developing countries [7,8,9]
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