Together for Nutrition 2015

1. Food consumption changes in Ethiopia
Mekdim Dereje
ESSP/EDRI
June 15th, 2015
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Institution logo
here

2. Introduction
• Rapid changes in Ethiopia’s economy (Ethiopia one of the fastest
growing economies in the world)
• Important increases in agricultural production in last decade
• Despite improvements in economy and in agricultural production, still
important nutritional problems in the country
• Purpose of the analysis: Explore patterns and changes in Ethiopia’s
food economy, based on nationally representative data

3. Data
• Rely on the Ethiopian Household Consumption and Expenditure
Survey (HICES) collected by CSA:
- Year 1995/96: 11,678 households
- Year 1999/00: 17,320 households
- Year 2004/05: 21,560 households
- Year 2010/11: 27,831 households
• Use CSA’s retail price dataset for deflation of expenditures

4. Food versus non-food expenditures
1) Important welfare
improvements
• Increasing real expenditures
overall
• Food expenditures grew by 19%
between 2011 and 2000
• Increasing share of non-food
- 2000: 37%
- 2005: 46%
- 2011: 52%
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2000 2005 2011
Birr/capita
Food
Non-food

5. Cereals versus non-cereals
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
2000 2005 2011
Shareinfoodexpenditures
(%)
cereals non-cereals
2) Increasing diversification in the
food basket
• Quantities of cereals consumed
is slightly increasing:
- 1996: 127 kgs/capita
- 2000: 141 kgs/capita
- 2005: 150 kgs/capita
- 2011: 155 kgs/capita
• Share of cereals in expenditures
on the decline

6. Non-cereal foods
3) Diversification into high-value
food types
• Non-cereal foods on the rise:
- animal products
- oils and fats
- F&V
- Coffee/tea/chat
0
5
10
15
2000 2005 2011
%foodexpenditures
animal products oil and fat
F&V enset/kocho
coffee/tea/chat

7. Cereals
4) Considerable variation within
cereal consumption
• In kg terms, maize most important
cereals
• Maize consumption increasing over
time (51 kgs in 2011; 37 kgs in
2000)
• In expenditure terms, teff, wheat
and maize equally important (each
about 7.5% of expenditures)
• Processed cereals not important
yet overall (4.6% of expenditures)
0
50
100
150
2000 2005 2011
kg/capita/year
teff wheat barley
maize sorghum other

8. Urban versus rural
5) Important difference between
urban and rural
• Urbanization low in Ethiopia but
taking off
• Has implication on Ethiopia’s food
economy
• Urban residents have different food
basket:
- More consumption of teff and
meat
- Lower consumption of maize,
sorghum and enset/kocho 0 5 10 15
teff
sorghum
maize
processed cereals
animal products
enset/kocho
F&V
% food expenditures
Rural
Urban

9. Sources of food expenditures
6) Food markets becoming more
important
• Food in rural areas mostly
acquired through own
consumption (42%)
• However, food markets (sales of
food for food purchase (34%))
already important in rural areas
and very high in urban areas
• Salaries/wages, sales of non-ag.
products, and remittances
important in urban areas
0 20 40 60
Auto-consumption
Sale ag. products
Sale non-ag. products
Salary/wage
Remittances
Others
% food expenditures
Urban
Rural

10. Calorie consumption
7) Average calorie consumption
improving
• Average calorie consumption 9%
higher in last decade
• Cereals stays major source of
calories:
- 2000: 65%
- 2005: 61%
- 2011: 62%
• Maize makes up 20% of calorie
consumption in 2011
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
2000 2005 2011
Kcal/day/adultequivalent
cereals non-cereals

11. Prices per calorie
8) Large variation in prices paid
per calorie
• Maize is the cheapest source of
calories (followed closely by
enset, sorghum, and root crops)
• Processed cereals four times as
expensive as non-processed
• Cereals half the price of non-
cereals 0 0.2 0.4 0.6
maize
enset/kocho
sorghum
root crops
barley
teff
wheat
sugar and salt
oil and fat
processed cereals
Birr/kcal

12. Income and the share of food/cereals
9) Important difference between the poor and non-poor
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Poorest q2 q3 q4 Richest
Shareoffoodintotalexp.(%)
2011 2005 2000
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Poorest q2 q3 q4 richest
Shareofcerealsinfoodexp.
(%)
2011 2005 2000

13. Income and cereal expenditures
• Share of cereals going down for
richer households
• Teff (9.1% versus 4.4%) and
processed cereals (8.9% versus
2.6%) more eaten by the rich
than by poor
• Maize (13.0% versus 2.6%) and
sorghum (6.9% versus 1.8%)
more eaten by the poor than by
the rich
0
10
20
30
40
Poorest q2 q3 q4 Richest
%foodexpenditures
teff wheat
barley maize
sorghum processed cereals

14. Income and non-cereal expenditures
• Share of non-cereals going up
for richer households
• Animal products (17.6% versus
6.6%) more eaten by the rich
than by poor
• Enset/kocho (6.4% versus 1.7%)
and pulses (10.1% versus 7.6%)
more eaten by the poor than by
the rich
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Poorest q2 q3 q4 Richest
%foodexpenditures
animal products pulses
oil and fat F&V
enset/kocho coffee/tea/chat
other

15. Conclusions
• Important food diet transformation in the last decade:
1/ Average quantity (+23%) and calorie (+9%) consumption has
improved significantly
2/ Share of cereals in expenditures on the decline (43% in 2000; 35% in
2011)
3/ Consumption of more expensive foods on the rise (animal foods;
processed foods; coffee/tea/chat)
• Large differences in food consumption by income levels and between
urban and rural populations

16. Conclusions
• Implications:
1/ Agricultural policy successful in promoting cereal productivity in the
past; however, more demand for diversified foods; more emphasis
required in the future on diversification in production
2/ Agricultural markets play more important role in food economy;
further stimulate these markets and better understand constraints in
their functioning
3/ While average improvements, part of the population no adequate
diets; further continuation and strengthening of nutrition-sensitive
safety nets required