Structural Reforms and the Need for a Strategic Basic Food Reserve in El Salvador

摘要

In 1989, the Government of El Salvador abandoned the buffer stock-pricestabilization program for basic grains and edible beans it had established in 1953 in favor of a strategic food reserve scheme. The continued viability of this strategic reserve as a food security mechanism for the country is examined in this report. After a brief review of the original buffer stock-market intervention program and the shift to the strategic reserve program, the report describes the latter's policies and management in detail, covering purchasing, selling, storing, and total costs. The report then compares El Salvador's strategic reserve program with the classical concept of a strategic reserve as practiced in other countries, and examines the need for the program in the light of current structural reforms and market development trends.