Attachments
Wheat is the staple food for poor households in Yemen; sorghum is most often consumed as a substitute. Rice is important to all wealth groups. Sana’a market is the most important in Yemen and supplies other markets within the country. Wheat milling is concentrated at the ports of Aden and Al Hudayda, which also serve as the main reference and source markets for their respective region’s of the country. Aden is the reference market for the southern region, located in a deficit zone and is the largest wholesale market with a large storage capacity. Hudaydah is an assembly, wholesale, and retail market located in the western coast – one of the most populated areas in the country where a majority of households are staple food market-dependent. Sa’ada market is located in a main conflict area where food availability and access have become a major concern.
The price trends of wheat and wheat flour are generally stable on a month-to-month basis with some variations due to seasonal high demand (i.e. high demand during the Ramadan festivities). However, purchasing power is a major food security constraint as incomes from both labor and livestock, the main income-generating activities for poor- households, tend to fluctuate. Terms of Trade serve as proxy indicators for purchasing power, by measuring the relative value of these income-generating activities (wages and livestock prices) to the cost of purchasing staple foods (staple food prices).