African marketing boards under structural adjustment : the experience of Sub-Saharan Africa during the 1980s

Sum.: The economic policy of structural adjustment, which was initiated in most African countries during the 1980s, posed a serious threat to agricultural marketing boards in sub-Saharan Africa. Two elements of structural adjustment were particularly ominous: 'privatization' threatened the continued existence of marketing boards as public enterprises, and the 'liberalization of trade' worsened the conditions under which they operated. On the basis of an extensive study of the literature, this report examines what actually happened to 39 marketing boards in 18 countries. The period covered is January 1980 till December 1989. The results, presented partly in the form of tables and partly as case studies, show that most marketing boards have survived but that their scope has been reduced. The case studies deal with the Office national de commercialisation des produits de base (ONCPB) in Cameroon, the Cotton Board of Kenya (CBK), the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) in Malawi, Senegal's Office national de coopération et d'assistance pour le développement (ONCAD), the Société nationale de commercialisation des oléagineux du Sénégal (Sonacos), and the National Milling Corporation (NMC) in Tanzania

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