Abstract
Despite the impressive growth of export sector, there is substantial concern about sustainability due to Lao trade has lacked diversification and concentrated on low value-added export products and raw materials such as copper ore. Nevertheless, there are more business opportunities to export agricultural products because there is high market demand for crops, fruits, and live animals in Yunnan province, China. Therefore, the paper examines the factors constraining agricultural export diversification in Lao PDR, focusing on the aggregated level of agricultural export diversification. It applies both descriptive and qualitative approaches. The descriptive statistic method applies by utilizing the latest trade data such as trade flow in volume and value and by-products and countries. It also uses the HHI as an indicator of export diversification and concentration. In addition, key informant interviews were also conducted at both the central and provincial levels to confirm and verify the preliminary results of this study. The study results suggest that the agricultural export basket of Laos has continued to remain relatively under-diversified, and the country has not been able to translate its comparative advantage into competitiveness advantage. The study also finds that Laos continues a high level of commodity concentration suggested by the recent HHI index; this means that the country suffers from highly concentrated on a few products for the bulk of its export earnings as compared to its peer countries. Main factors that result in less diversification of agricultural exports in Laos. 1) the process industry in Laos is in the early stages of development. 2) agricultural export products to foreign markets face difficulty because there are many requirements and measures. 3) the costs related to export are relatively high.
| # | Title | Download |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | MRI Working Paper Series on Agricultural Export Diversification in Lao PDR (October 2021) |  PDF |
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