If alternative export markets are not found, it is very likely that farmers will react by planting less maize next season. Price differentials already make it profitable to move grain from central Tanzania into Kenya. If trade barriers were removed and the Tanzanian Government encouraged food exports through infrastructure improvements and incentive programs, farmers in southern Tanzania could find alternative export markets in Kenya or in regional emergency programs. A government cannot strictly enforce a policy designed to limit trade if it lacks the means to control its borders, but such a policy nevertheless raises transaction costs when traders come up with creative schemes to circumvent it. For example, at some major border points, trucks are unloaded on one side of the border and the commodities are loaded onto bicycles, carts, donkeys, or people to be carried to trucks on the other side of the border.
Bribes are often necessary to ensure that customs officials ignore the trade.
In Tanzania this year, traders are choosing to move maize through more remote border points to avoid customs authorities. These difficulties stifle trade, resulting in loss of potential gains for parties on both sides of the transaction. If governments in the GHA take a broader, longer term look at the benefits of food trade on domestic economies and adopt policies that encourage development of diversified export and import markets, both within and outside the region, food trade can fulfill its potential as a vehicle for improving food security in the region.