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Cross Border Trade

Owned by Zoe Wingate
Last updated: Jun 28, 2024 by Allison Nederveld
4 min read

The Trade Domain within the FDW offers data that informs the FEWS NET Project’s reporting on trade flow patterns in a given country or region. The data covers informal trade across x country trade partner pairs over y commodities.

Source, destination, and reporting countries

We need up to 3 countries involved in the creation of a Cross Border Trade Flow Data Series:

  • Source: the country where the goods originated;

  • Destination: the country where the goods were ultimately delivered; and

  • Reporting Country: where the trade flow was observed/enumerated, often at a specific Border Point.

Reporting country

The Reporting Country is the place where the trade flow is observed at the time of reporting. It is not necessarily the same as the country of the Data Source Organization that publishes the data, or the Source or Destination country. For example, the Reporting Country could denote a country of transit through which the goods flow from a Source country toward their final Destination country.

Border point

The Border Point is the exact place (often, but not always, a market location), within the Reporting Country where the trade flow is observed. It is optional. 

In some places, a town straddles the border. In that case there may be two Border Points with the same name, but each will have a different Reporting Country. Only the Border Point for that Reporting Country will be listed for any given data point. For example, if the Reporting Country is Kenya, Busia, Kenya, may be the Border Point; whereas, if the Reporting Country is Uganda, then Busia, Uganda, may be the Border Point. 

Data source organization

In addition, the Data Source Organization denotes the organization that publishes the data. This is usually specific to a given country, which is recorded in the Country field for that Data Source Organization. Again, the country of the Data Source Organization that publishes the data may or may not be the actual Reporting Country where the Trade Flow was observed.

Metadata descriptions

The following are required fields for trade flow quantity data series:

  1. reporting_country: The country where the data is collected. It is either the Source Country,  Destination Country, or a Transit Country.

  2. border_point: The Border Point where the data was collected. Since the border point is optional, it can be left empty for the Formal trade data whereas the border point will become specific for the Informal Trade data. 

  3. source: The country that the product originates from (i.e., the country that the product is being exported from).

  4. destination: The country that the product is delivered to (i.e., the country that the product is being imported into). Must be different from the Source unless the Transit flow type is applicable.

  5. product: The Classified Product that is being traded. Must be a "leaf" Product (i.e., the Product must not have any child products). The value must match an existing Classified Product in FDW (using the cpcv2 code, the common name, the description or an alias).

  6. unit: The Unit Of Measure that captures the amount of the Product being traded (e.g., kg, t, or L). It must match an existing Unit of Measure in the FDW (using abbreviation, description, or alias).

  7. flow_type: The type of trade flow, which is either Export, Import, Re-Export, or Transit.

    1. Export is used if the Reporting Country and the Source are the same.

    2. Import is used if the Reporting Country and the Destination are the same.

  8. trade_type: The type of trade, which is either Formal or Informal. Documented and Undocumented are aliases for Formal and Informal, respectively. This field was previously called trade_status. 

  9. data_source_document: The name of the Source Document, which must already exist in FDW. 

  10. data_source_organization: The name of the organization publishing the Source Document.

To import trade flow quantity values, a spreadsheet requires the above metadata and two additional columns, including:

  1. period_date:  

    1. Monthly data collections use the last day of a month

    2. Weekly data collections use the same day of the week each week

    3. Formatted as YYYY-MM-DD

  2. value: The quantity recorded for the amount in metric tonnes, individual items, or liters.

Example Trade Flow Scenario: wheat (local and imported) to Rwanda from Kenya at Gatuna

Wheat is leaving Kenya (e.g., Country1) and entering Rwanda (e.g., Country2). Therefore, the Source country is Kenya and the Destination country is Rwanda.

The enumerators are from RATIN, and so the Data Source Document will belong to the RATIN Data Source Organization.

If all RATIN trade data is reported in the same spreadsheet, then the Data Source Document will be RATIN, EA Cross Border Trade, which belongs to the RATIN, EA Cross Border Trade Data Source Organization. RATIN is an international organization, so the Data Source Organization does not have a Country set.

If the Organization that published the data (in this case RATIN) was based in a specific country, then that country would be specified as the Country for that Data Organization. This would not have any effect on the Reporting Country, which records where the data was enumerated, not where it was published.

The border point is Gatuna, which is on the border between Rwanda and Uganda.

If the data is collected on the Rwanda side of the border, then the Border Point will be Gatuna, Rwanda (Country2) and the Reporting Country will be Rwanda (Country2). This Trade Flow will be an Import.

If the data is collected on the Uganda side of the border, then the Border Point will be Gatuna, Uganda (Country1) and the Reporting Country will be Uganda. This is neither the Source (Kenya) nor the Destination (Rwanda), so this Trade Flow will be a Transit.

If the Reporting Country was Kenya, then the Reporting Country would be the same as the Source Country, and the Flow Type will be an Export.