Processed food exports from developing countries: patterns and determinants

Abstract

A noteworthy recent development in world trade is the rapid expansion of processed food exports. This development and its policy implications have received little attention in the literature on export-led industrialisation in developing countries (DCs). The purpose of this paper is to redress this oversight, firstly by providing an overview of the growth patterns of processed food exports and then examining the determinants of inter-country differences in growth performance. The results point to the growing importance of food manufacturing as a dynamic export line for many DCs. There is also evidence that the policy regime is far more important than resource endowments and other country-specific factors in explaining inter-country differences in export success in this product area, as in the case of conventional manufactured exports.