the Symposium on Wheats for More Tropical Environments - cimmyt

309These changing consumption patternsreflect <strong>the</strong> preference for bread as aconvenience food in urban areas. Lesstime and cooking fuel is also requiredfor <strong>the</strong> consumption of wheat-basedfoods (10,12,17).On <strong>the</strong> supply side, urbanization alsofavors wheat consumption based onimports. With plentiful supplies ofwheat in world markets, laggingdomestic production of staple foods andpoor infrastructure for transporting andmarketing domestic food supplies inurban areas, <strong>the</strong>re has been a naturaltendency to import wheat to feed urbanconsumers, especially in countrieswhere large cities are located on <strong>the</strong>coast.Bread pricesFood pricing policy in many tropicalcountries favors low bread pricesrelative to competing staples. Aboutone-quarter of <strong>the</strong> tropical countries forwhich we have price data subsidizedbread prices in <strong>the</strong> 1970s. Sri Lanka,Sudan, Ivory Coast, Ecuador and Brazilare all countries where bread susbsidieshave led to rapid increases in wheatconsumption (3,12). Many o<strong>the</strong>rcountries have imported wheat dutyfreeand at a significantly overvaluedexchange rate. If bread prices areconverted at <strong>the</strong> black marketexchange rate, nearly half of <strong>the</strong>tropical countries, expecially in Africaand Latin America, had declining realbread prices in <strong>the</strong> 1970s (3). In Africa,this largely reflects exchange ratepolicy while, in Latin America, acombination of overvalued exchangerates and increasing bread subsidies ina number of countries have led todeclining real prices.The result of <strong>the</strong>se policies is that, inmany countries, wheat flour and breadare cheap relative to locally producedfood staples, such as rice, maize andcassava. In several countries, e.g.,Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Sudan, Brazil andEcuador, wheat flour based on importedwheat was cheaper than locallyproduced coarse grains, such as maizeor sorghum. Food pricing policy in<strong>the</strong>se countries may explain half ormore of <strong>the</strong> growth of wheatconsumption. There are. of course,important exceptions. Sou<strong>the</strong>ast Asiancountries such as Thailand, Burma and<strong>the</strong> Philippines maintain high breadprices. A number of countries, such asColombia, Senegal and Sri Lanka, havephased out bread subsidies and percapita wheat consumption has fallen.Food aidAlthough food aid has declined inimportance relative to commercial foodimports, it has been and remainsimportant to a number of tropicalcountries. Over 80% of food aid isprovided as wheat, and this proportionis only slightly lower for <strong>the</strong> tropicalcountries. Food aid has encouragedwheat consumption in <strong>the</strong>se countriesby reducing <strong>the</strong> price of wheatproducts, establishing a milling andbaking industry and developingconsumer tastes and preferences forwheat (9,19). The development ofmarkets for commercial wheat is stillan important objective of food aid andour cross-country regression analysisindicates that it has been relativelysuccessful. Sudan, Sri Lanka, Somaliaand Mauritania are examples of tropicalcountries that receive substantialamounts of food aid and have relativelyhigh per capita consumption of wheat.Government PolicyAlternatives with Respect toWheat in <strong>the</strong> TropicsInterest in wheat production in <strong>the</strong>tropical countries reflects a desire topromote greater self-sufficiency in food.Many governments have seen <strong>the</strong> rapid