Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/161615 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
WIDER Working Paper No. 2017/49
Publisher: 
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki
Abstract: 
Rapid urbanization and rising income levels in Southern Africa have increased the consumption of perishable and processed food products. This paper relies primarily on firm-level interview data to assess competition and bottlenecks in transporting time-sensitive perishable products across borders between Harare, Johannesburg, Lilongwe, and Lusaka. High transport prices in 2015 - almost double the benchmark rates applied and rates for transportation of commodities - are partly explained by concentration in Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, and lack of return loads to Johannesburg. Rates could be significantly reduced through a platform for co-ordinating access to return loads, reducing delays at borders, and effectively implementing pre-clearance procedures.
Subjects: 
road transport
perishable goods
cross-border transport
competition
Southern Africa
JEL: 
D40
F15
L1
L50
L91
L92
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
ISBN: 
978-92-9256-273-1
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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