Poverty and Human Development Report 2009 - UNDP in Tanzania

Food share
typically, a drop in the food share of total consumption is associated with an improvement
in the level of well-being (engel curve analysis). As reported earlier, the share of food in total
consumption declined from 62% to 59% from 2000/01 to 2007. further analysis presented in
figure 54 shows that:
i) wealthier tanzanian households spent a smaller fraction of their consumption on food; and
ii) between 2000/01 and 2007 there was a decline in the share of food in total consumption
at all levels of income/consumption. this downward shift occurred in each of the three
residence strata, though much more strongly among urban households, especially
those in dar es salaam.
these results suggest that the well-being of tanzanian households may have marginally
improved.
Figure 54: Food Share of Total Consumption (Engel curves), 2000/01 and 2007
(at 2001 Tshs Prices)
% Food share
.65
.55
source: hoogeveen et al., 2009
.7
.6
.5
0 1000 2000 3000
Per capital consumption (Tshs)
Goods with High Income Elasticities
2001 - - - - - - 2007
Chapter 2
When household incomes increase it is expected that consumption patterns will switch towards
goods of higher quality. figure 55 presents consumption of animal products, soft drinks, sugar,
rice, beef and cassava flour in 2000/01 and 2007. for all these commodities, except for cassava
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