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Madagascar

Madagascar Price Bulletin, February 2016

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The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) monitors trends in staple food prices in countries vulnerable to food insecurity. For each FEWS NET country and region, the Price Bulletin provides a set of charts showing monthly prices in the current marketing year in selected urban centers and allowing users to compare current trends with both five-year average prices, indicative of seasonal trends, and prices in the previous year.

Locally-produced rice (riz Gasy) is the most important staple food for households in northern and central Madagascar. Dried cassava is the primary staple food in the south, although it is consumed in other parts of the country when household food stocks are low. Imported rice is a less-preferred substitute, but often consumed by poor households. Antananarivo, the capital city, is a large urban market and is a major hub for the country’s staple food trade networks. Antsirabe is an urban market located in the surplus rice-producing Vakinankaratra region. Tamatave (Toamasina) is a port city on the eastern coast where traders import large quantities of rice that is then traded throughout the country. Amboasary is located between rice-producing regions of northern and central Madagascar and the cassava producing areas in extreme south. Fianarantsoa and Tulear (Toliara) are located in the southern cassava producing regions, and Ambovombe is situated in the southern-most part of the country.