Are current EU cereal prices correlated?

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.