Are current EU cereal prices correlated?

Open Access

Abstract

This paper evaluates the correlations between European cereal prices in up to 87 markets of 24 Member States. History and geography play a role: The highest correlations are observed between closely located internal markets of the "old" Union; prices are more correlated along transport routes, in particular rivers. We observe that 10 years after the Accession (8 in the case of Rumania and Bulgaria) we do not have a complete integration between the "old" and the "new" Member States. We advance several possible explanations: Weaker producers' organisations, lack of storage facilities, less efficient transport facilities.