MASP IV · Data Platform
East & Central Africa · 2026–2030
Solidaridad
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Market Access

Prices, buyers, traceability, certification and organised selling.
Moderate evidence17 studies · updated Oct 2026

Collective selling through cooperatives grew where buyers were reliable, but market uptake was the weakest pathway across programmes: buyer links, premium markets and EU sourcing targets were often missed, and middlemen still dominate sales in maize, horticulture and gold.

Key evidence

In figures

Market access indicators before and after% of farmers or sales
Earlier measurement Later measurement
Selling mainly to their cooperative, OCDDP Ethiopia
Selling mainly to their cooperative, OCDDP Ethiopia
Baseline: 40 → Endline 2021: 78 % of farmers or sales
40 → 78
Access to market information, CSV Maize Kenya
Access to market information, CSV Maize Kenya
Year 1: 44 → Year 2: 82 % of farmers or sales
44 → 82
French bean sales through collection centres, F4APK Kenya
French bean sales through collection centres, F4APK Kenya
Baseline: 62 → Endline: 44 % of farmers or sales
62 → 44

The F4APK row fell: new collection centres stopped working after a buyer failed to pay farmers.

OCDDP · Endline · 2021CSV Maize · Midline · 2024F4APK · Endline · 2020
Data table
ItemEarlierLater
Selling mainly to their cooperative, OCDDP Ethiopia40 (Baseline)78 (Endline 2021)
Access to market information, CSV Maize Kenya44 (Year 1)82 (Year 2)
French bean sales through collection centres, F4APK Kenya62 (Baseline)44 (Endline)

Change over time

CSV Maize Kenya
  1. Baseline 202174% of maize sold to middlemen; no maize cooperatives in the area.
  2. Midline 2024Market information access 82% (from 44%); one aggregation centre established, two still registering.
H4G (horticulture) Kenya
  1. Baseline 202238% of farmers linked to credible input or service providers; 45% could access quality inputs.
  2. Endline 202345.4% sold to middlemen and the share growing project target crops fell compared with baseline.

What works

What holds results back

Recommendations for programming

Evidence gaps & caveats

  • Few studies report prices and sales volumes at endline, so market outcomes are mostly described through reach and linkages.
  • Results for EU-facing value chains (cotton, leather) come from a small number of factories and buyers.

Why this evidence rating: Several endlines agree that market uptake lagged other pathways, but quantitative price and sales outcomes are rarely measured.

Source studies (17)