DIIS ∙ SUA Collaboration

Global Agro-Food Trade and Standards:

Challenges for AfricaSAFE Final Conference, 31 May – 1

June, 2010

Zanzibar

Stefano Ponte, DIIS

The SAFE book

Global agro-food trade and standards: Challenges for Africa

Edited by Peter Gibbon, Stefano Ponte and Evelyne Lazaro

Palgrave Macmillan, May 2010

Main findings of the book 1

• More demanding and complex standards (at least on paper) but some are increasingly organized in terms of a small number of principles

• Covering a wide range of issues

• Apply increasingly to the whole chain

• Shaping a number of ‘separate’, dedicated chains

• Emergence of business association standards and MSIs

• Key role of NGOs, brandedagro-food processors and retaliers

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Main findings of the book 2

• Business association standards lead to fewer audits; multiplication of MSIs has opposite effect

• MSIs do not necessarily lead to meaningful inclusion of Southern stakeholders

• Southern initiatives are not a panacea

• MSIs diverting attention from ‘day-to-day’ practices of retaliers and importers

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Main findings of the book 3

• Very large differences between standards in the degree to which production systems have to be changed in order to attain conformity.

• Standards are not applied to the letter

• Many standards have adopted special provisions for smallholder certification• These allow sometimes considerable flexibility

in the division of labour between smallholders and exporters

• Sustainability standards do not challenge ‘buyer power’ -- but shorten the chain

Main findings of the book 4• Relatively positive welfare outcomes in:• Fisheries (food safety)

• strong demand for fish• policy not allowing large-scale fishing on LV

• Organics• ’organic by default’ situation; • features in contract farming providing incentives

to raise productivity and enhance quality• Guaranteed price premium• Transparent assessment of quality

• Vegetables (GLOBAL-GAP)• Exporter involved in heavy vertical integration

with contract farmers

• Provision of services, training, application of inputs

Conclusion 1

• One argument on standards and Africa

- prevalent until early 2000s

- liberalization of international trade is dismantling classic trade barriers: standards as new forms of protectionism

• Another argument on standards and Africa

- gaining traction in the 2000s

- standards provide opportunities for upgrading

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Conclusion 2

• Some key debates:- Does the cost of complying with standards fall

mainly on producers or also on exporters? In what circumstances? What are the net benefits for both?

- Is there an unnecessarily duplication of standards? How does one (and can one) avoid proliferation?

- Are standards applied ’to the letter’?

- Are smallholders being excluded? In what circumstances? In relation to what standards and which value chains?

Conclusion 3

• The findings of the book suggest that:

a) Standards are becoming more demanding, but implementation is flexible

b) It is important to look at outcomes arising from better management, better quality, lower wastage as well as increased costs

c) Transparency and participation are oftenfictional, but Southern initiatives copycat

d) In some circumstances, smallholders are getting substantial benefits

DIIS ∙ SUA Collaboration