When states meet vegetables

How does the materiality of a particular good impact the way that states govern its trade? In this working paper Fana Gebresenbet, assistant professor at Addis Ababa University, analyses the trading of vegetables – a quintessentially perishable commodity – in Ethiopia’s Somali region state. Based on fieldwork in the region the author proposes a theoretical explaining the relationship between states and commodities in function of the value and relative durability of the latter. Zooming in on the vegetable market in the regional capital Jigjiga, the paper highlights how actors involved in vegetable trading, in particular retailers, govern vegetable trading on the basis of practical norms that have evolved over the year. Trading and accumulation patterns are, however, marked by ethnic entitlements that reflect Ethiopia’s ethnic federalism. This DIIS Working Paper is part of the GOVSEA PAPER SERIES (Governing Economic Hubs and Flows in Somali East Africa) edited by Tobias Hagmann and Finn Stepputat.