Commodity Availability is qualitative secondary data included in the Price data domain. In addition to quantitative price data, qualitative weekly commodity availability data are gathered for each commodity at each monitored market.  These data are loaded weekly. 

About the data

Weekly Commodity Availability Data monitors the availability of a product in a particular market to identify abundance, stability, or scarcity.  Availability is measured on a scale of 0-3 where:

• 0 = Not Available

• 1 = Below Average

• 2 = Average

• 3 = above average

Various terms are also used to describe availability and vary from country to country. 

Data are collected weekly and can be extracted as a weekly and/or monthly average.  If data are extracted at a less frequent interval than it was collected (e.g. extract weekly data as monthly), then we aggregate the more frequent values. 

The availability conversion number displays the month's most common availability score value. If there are 4 weeks in a month, and 3 weeks have an availability value of 3, but one week has 0, the system will display 3 because it is the most common value in the month. If there are equal values, the system displays the highest value, corresponding to better availability.

Preparing the data

• Availability terms used in collection and recorded in imported data sheets are not case sensitive. 

• Underscores and spaces are acceptable. For Example: not_available, NOT_AVAILABLE, Not Available etc. 

• Numbers are also accepted 0-3.  For example: Abundant and above average would be considered the same with each equal to 3. 

The following availability conversion table displays terms and the associated value returned for each term response and any associated variation of the term response. 

In addition to the fields required for Price data, the import document should contain the following information: 

• country

• market location 

• commodity 

• price type

• unit 

• currency

• availability

The FDW will currently recognize the following fields: market , product , price_type , unit , currency , data_source_document , period_date , datapoint_status , value , dataseries , datacollectionperiod , country , product_source , is_staple_food , data_source_organization , collection_date , availability , id , created , modified , status , status_changed , specialization_type , datacollection , description , high_value , ci95_low , ci95_high , contains_events , extra.

Importing weekly commodity availability data

To upload weekly commodity availability data in FDW:

1. Go to Data Entry > Add a new Data Collection (manually or by uploading a file).

2. The fields below will appear on the Add Data Collection screen. Some fields are automatically populated after the source document is selected but can be overridden if necessary. 

   1. Source Document: Find a relevant Source Document. If one does not exist, click the “+” to add one. 

   2. Document type: Created during the document creation step. Will be pre-populated or can be blank on this screen. 

   3. Publication name: Provide a helpful description of the publication. Can be empty for most data collections.

   4. Collection date: This should be populated with the most recent data collection date. 

   5. File: Select the appropriate file to upload.

   6. Status: Automatically displays the collection status. In this case, it should be Draft. 

3. Once all of the fields have been populated, click one of the Save options. The Data collection is saved in the Draft status and can be accessed at https://fdw.fews.net/en/admin/warehouse/datacollection/. Data series and data points are added to the relevant models in the database. 

Bulk data can be uploaded using the offline Data Upload functionality or the Import Market Price screens. The Hub is available to provide support for these uploads.

Importing historic commodity availability data

To upload historic data, add availability data to previously collected data, or to upload bulk new data with availability information, submit a request to the Helpdesk (helpdesk@fews.net) for a particular area and provide a sample file (ie; Excel sheet). The Hub will create the upload or contact concerned parties to ensure the correct data are included. 

Exporting commodity availability data

Weekly Commodity availability data are extracted via the Price API and are included if they exist.

When uploaded, weekly commodity data can be accessed via the following API links: 

• https://fdw.fews.net/api/marketpricefacts/ 

• https://fdw.fews.net/api/marketprice/