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Yemen

Yemen Monthly Market Watch March-April 2015

Attachments

Highlights

  • The overall market information for March/April 2015 revealed that availability and supply of essential food and non-food commodities including fuel have been seriously disrupted by the ongoing war in Yemen.
    Retail prices of wheat have increased by more than 40 percent across most of the markets. As a result, the total food insecure population in the country is now estimated to be around 12 million and feared to grow further as the war continues.

  • The current intensified airstrikes and conflicts have been ongoing for the past four weeks since 26 March 2015 and have damaged basic infrastructure including markets, roads, and bridges, including those connecting Sa’ada with Hajja, which resulted in lack of availability and physical/economic access to food and fuel as well as other essential commodities in almost all the 19 out of 22 governorates in Yemen.

  • The average domestic wholesale prices of wheat grain and wheat flour increased by 32 percent and 40.2 percent, respectively, between March and April 2015 following the war in Yemen.

  • In April 2015, the average retail prices of both wheat grain and wheat flour rose by 42 percent and 44 percent, respectively, compared with February 2015 reflecting the increased wholesale prices.

  • The government of Yemen reported as having food stock in the country enough for six months which is not fully supplied to the market due to the continued war which restricted movements. The commercial imports have been severely disrupted by the ongoing conflict, while Yemen used to import an average 350,000 MT food every month on commercial basis.

  • Availability and supply of food commodities have been extremely hampered by the ongoing war and most of the markets in the affected 19 governorates are totally incapable of providing the necessary supplies.

  • The average Terms of Trade (TOT) between the daily unskilled labour wage rate and wheat flour were 11.43Kg/day in April 2015 – down by 33 and 44 percent from March and February 2015.

  • The average TOT between a sheep and wheat flour were 174.22Kg/sheep in April 2015 – dropped by 24.4 percent from the previous month, and 36.3 percent lower than in February 2015.

  • The FAO Food Price Index averaged 173.8 points in March 2015, a drop of 1.5 percent from February and 18.7 percent down from March 2014. The Cereal Price Index averaged 169.8 points in March, down by 1.1 percent from February 2015 and lower by 18.7 percent than in March last year.

  • International wheat prices further dropped by 2 percent between February and March 2015, and much lower than that recorded in March last year – down by 28.3 percent.