Despite the high food price crisis of 2008 and 2012, most governments in developing countries continue to support an open trade stance with the rest of the world and promote agricultural exports. However, there is scarce evidence on the synergetic effects of promoting agricultural export on domestic food security, and more particularly on the distributional effects of such policies on food access by households. This study uses a micro-macro modelling approach to examine the impacts of enhanced agricultural export orientation on the four dimensions of food security in three structurally food insecure African economies: Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. Our findings suggest that agro-export promotion is likely to negatively affect staple food consumption by urban households while gains are observed for rural households. These effects are stronger for Ethiopia and Kenya. We also find that risks associated with international commodity price and productivity failures can further deteriorate access to food in countries implementing agricultural export promotion policies
