SIMA - (Market Information Service)

Methodology

SIMA (Market Information Service) of FDTA-Valles (Foundation for the Technical Agricultural Development of the Valleys), in its efforts to gather information for the benefit of the agricultural sector, decided to focus on the prices of commodities from the wholesale markets because these places constitute a common place of passage of products from the field to the consumer market.

Data Collection

The wholesale markets selected as primary sources of information are the following: Campesino (Sucre); La Ceja, Max Paredes, Rodriguez and Uruguay (La Paz); Campesino, La Pampa, Punata and Santa Barbara (Cochabamba); Campesino (Tarija) and El Abasto and La Ramada (Santa Cruz de la Sierra), as well as the external markets of Salta (Argentina) and Arequipa (Peru). Reporters visit their assigned markets from Tuesday through Saturday, always between 05:30 and 07:00, collect data, and then send it to the SIMA offices before 10:00.

SIMA staff review the data according to established parameters (name, quality, size, condition, origin, sale unit, among others), responding to the increasing exigencies of the service.

Data Processing

Each report is subject to a rigorous quality control based upon each product's price history. The data are then introduced into the CPD (Commodity Price Database), based on the descriptions used by the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture). Through this system, information and reports are processed by product, market, origin or any other variable required by clients.

Before a report is released, a final quality control review is made to ensure that the information contained therein accurately reflects market behavior.

Information Dissemination

A Daily Report (from Monday through Friday) containing wholesale price information for between 10 to 28 products selected by their importance and market presence is then disseminated by SIMA. This report is broadcast twice daily (between 06:00 and 06:30 and between 19:00 and 19:30) through a network of Bolivian radio stations. These radio reports are broadcasted in Aymara, Spanish or Quechua languages, depending on the influence area of the radio station. The same report is also published on our web site (see SIMA - Homepage in the above menu).

A Daily National Bulletin, containing all products included in the SIMA data base and their high and low prices from the mentioned wholesale markets, is offered via eMail to the subscribers. The subscription also includes one report per week for one product selected by the subscriber, presenting data for the previous 18 weeks and tendency graphs.

Every year, SIMA publishes the "Annual Summary of Perishable Agricultural Commodity Wholesale Market Prices of Bolivia" consisting of the files for each product included in its data base. This annual report is distributed as an interactive CD with information presented in both Spanish, with prices in Bolivianos, and English, with prices in American dollars. The printed version is available upon request.

(For more information, download the document Methodology...)

Contáctese con nosotros: sima@fdta-valles.org