A Descriptive Characterization of Agricultural Producer Price Dynamics in Ecuadorian Open Administrative Records (2016–2026)

Resumen

Agricultural producer price monitoring provides essential market intelligence for food security and rural policy planning in developing economies. This study presents a descriptive characterization of the official open administrative record maintained by the Ecuadorian Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) from January 2016 through June 2026 (N = 16,748). Data quality auditing confirmed 100 % completeness and validity across all attributes with zero sentinel values. Spatial analysis indicates that price monitoring is concentrated in key agro-logistical hubs, led by Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas (1,472 records, 8.79 %) and Cotopaxi (1,209 records, 7.22 %). Commodity profiling shows that cocoa varieties in dried almond presentation represent 17.00 % (2,848 records) of the registry; the registry-wide annual mean price rose from historical baselines (x̄ ≈ 0.77–0.98 USD/kg in 2016–2021) to 1.90 USD/kg in 2024 and 1.85 USD/kg in 2025, a shift for which cocoa itself was the main driver, its own mean price reaching 6.76 USD/kg in 2024. An interactive dashboard was deployed to facilitate multi-commodity spatial queries for public decision-makers. These findings highlight the utility of open administrative records while delineating methodological boundaries regarding farm-level profitability and microdata granularity.