Dynamic structural resilience of international staple food trade networks

It is important to maintain the resilient international food trade network for food security. We have constructed the international trade networks of maize, rice, soybean, and wheat based on bilateral flows data between economies. Drawing on information theory, we have measured their dynamic resilience based on efficiency and redundancy during 1986 to 2022. We have also investigated the impact of economies and relationships on their resilience. Overall, we argue that rice and soybean trade networks deserve more attention while resilience in maize and wheat shows a steady upward trend. Meanwhile, our findings emphasize the importance of diversity of trade flows and partners for enhancing resilience. Currently, for example, excessively high monopolization of soybean trade may not be beneficial for its resilience. Also, we have found that major exporters and relationships between geographically bordering economies have greater impact on the resilience. Moreover, we have confirmed the existence of different network structures with the optimal resilience as relationships are removed cumulatively, which may be an informative guide for the international food trade.