Key messages:-
Though retailers and manufacturers have started to commit to development policies, core brands and the way they are purchased remain largely unaffected.
Buyers need to be informed of development issues, with adapted training materials to change "business as usual".
]]>Key messages:-
Though retailers and manufacturers have started to commit to development policies, core brands and the way they are purchased remain largely unaffected.
Buyers need to be informed of development issues, with adapted training materials to change "business as usual".
There is positive interest in and strong need for sector - and company-specific training modules.
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To download and find out more visit the IIED site
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For more information or to purchase this publication please visit the IIED site
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Journal of International Economic Law 2008 11(3):575-608
The proliferation of transnational social and environmental standards developed by non-state governance systems potentially poses a challenge to international trade law and the legitimacy of the World Trade Organization (WTO). These systems-in areas including forestry, apparel, tourism, labour practices, agriculture, fisheries, and food-operate largely independently of states as well as of traditional standard setting bodies such as the International Organization for Standardization. In lieu of definitive legal rules on recognition of legitimate international standards under relevant trade agreements [e.g, Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), and Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS)], we identify the legal and political dynamics of standards recognition and find good prospects for these new non-state governance systems to successfully navigate them. Since these systems' standards ultimately aim to socially embed global markets, the WTO's legitimacy is at risk if its rules open the door to legal challenges of states that implicitly or explicitly adopt them. To avoid such legitimacy problems, we propose that a norm of leaving ‘transnational regulatory space' for social and environmental standard setting should guide the WTO and its members.
]]>Journal of International Economic Law 2008 11(3):575-608
The proliferation of transnational social and environmental standards developed by non-state governance systems potentially poses a challenge to international trade law and the legitimacy of the World Trade Organization (WTO). These systems-in areas including forestry, apparel, tourism, labour practices, agriculture, fisheries, and food-operate largely independently of states as well as of traditional standard setting bodies such as the International Organization for Standardization. In lieu of definitive legal rules on recognition of legitimate international standards under relevant trade agreements [e.g, Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), and Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS)], we identify the legal and political dynamics of standards recognition and find good prospects for these new non-state governance systems to successfully navigate them. Since these systems' standards ultimately aim to socially embed global markets, the WTO's legitimacy is at risk if its rules open the door to legal challenges of states that implicitly or explicitly adopt them. To avoid such legitimacy problems, we propose that a norm of leaving ‘transnational regulatory space' for social and environmental standard setting should guide the WTO and its members.
http://jiel.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/11/3/575
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This article deals with the safety control devices on the French import markets for fresh fruit and vegetables for three reasons: i) the nature of the safety risk in the fruit and vegetables industry; ii) the specific legal status of the French importer; and iii) the original organisation of safety controls on the import markets.
]]>This article deals with the safety control devices on the French import markets for fresh fruit and vegetables for three reasons: i) the nature of the safety risk in the fruit and vegetables industry; ii) the specific legal status of the French importer; and iii) the original organisation of safety controls on the import markets.
Available for download at http://www.prodinra.inra.fr/prodinra/pinra/data/2008/02/PROD2008741a4c4_20080204012314095.rtf
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At a gathering of more than 1,000 suppliers, Chinese officials and advocacy groups, Wal-Mart executives revealed a new supplier agreement that would require manufacturers to allow outside audits and to adhere to specific social and environmental criteria. The agreement will be phased in beginning in January, Wal-Mart said.
The changes signal a move by Wal-Mart away from intermittent transactions with many suppliers toward longer-term arrangements with a smaller group of manufacturers. Wal-Mart is betting that using its buying power this way can help keep prices low even as it keeps a closer eye on its suppliers.
Wal-Mart, long criticized for its treatment of workers in the United States and its ostensible willingness to overlook violations abroad, has in recent years offered a series of environmental and labor initiatives. A Beijing meeting now under way is the company's first "sustainability summit."
By next year, Wal-Mart will start keeping close track of the factories from which its products originate, even if the products pass through many hands. By 2012, Wal-Mart will require suppliers to source 95 percent of their production from factories that receive the highest ratings in audits of environmental and social practices.
The agreement includes a ban on child labor, forced labor and pay below the local minimum wage.
"Meeting social and environmental standards is not optional," Lee Scott, Wal-Mart's chief executive, said at the Beijing meeting. "I firmly believe that a company that cheats on overtime and on the age of its labor, that dumps its scraps and its chemicals in our rivers, that does not pay its taxes or honor its contracts, will ultimately cheat on the quality of its products. And cheating on the quality of products is the same as cheating on customers."
To ensure that suppliers are making changes, Wal-Mart said it would require three levels of audits: from the vendors themselves, from an outside party and from Wal-Mart, which will initiate more of its own random, unannounced audits.
Wal-Mart said the audits would assess factory working conditions as well as compliance by manufacturers with standards regarding air pollution, wastewater discharge, management of toxic substances and disposal of hazardous waste.
Environmental and labor groups that follow Wal-Mart said the retailer had a mixed history when it came to the environment and labor practices, and that sometimes the company's goals were lofty, while the measurable outcomes were less so.
In the 1990s it came to light that workers at factories producing Kathie Lee Gifford clothing for Wal-Mart were subjected to inhumane conditions. Last year, two nongovernmental organizations said abuse and labor violations, including child labor, occurred at 15 factories that produce or supply goods for Wal-Mart and other retailers. In June the U.S. government and the state of Oklahoma filed a complaint in federal court claiming that Wal-Mart and other companies dumped hazardous waste in Oklahoma City. In Bangladesh, it was charged that factory workers were made to work 19-hour shifts, with some bringing home just $20 a month.
Michael Green, executive director of the Center for Environmental Health, a watchdog group in Oakland, California, said he believed that Wal-Mart's effort to improve the practices of its suppliers began as a program to counter public-relations damage.
"I think what happened along the way is some people there actually got convinced," he said. "It became more than a sophisticated PR stunt, but something they believed in."
Read more here.
Source: International Herald tribune. Wal-Mart announces new ethical and environmental principles. By Stephanie Rosenbloom. Wednesday, October 22, 2008
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In recent years, private sector standards for food products have rapidly increased in number and compliance with some of these standards is becoming de-facto necessity to obtain market access. Certification, as a guarantee of compliance with these standards, can facilitate access to more lucrative markets than those for non-certified products. However compliance with such standards and their certification are often problematic for developing countries and specially for smallholder farmers. Many issues affect the participation of small-scale farmers in markets for certified high-value products. This policy brief provides an overview of the issues and a number of policy recommendations for countries and government, with a focus on private sector standards related to Good Agricultural Practices (GAP).
]]>In recent years, private sector standards for food products have rapidly increased in number and compliance with some of these standards is becoming de-facto necessity to obtain market access. Certification, as a guarantee of compliance with these standards, can facilitate access to more lucrative markets than those for non-certified products. However compliance with such standards and their certification are often problematic for developing countries and specially for smallholder farmers. Many issues affect the participation of small-scale farmers in markets for certified high-value products. This policy brief provides an overview of the issues and a number of policy recommendations for countries and government, with a focus on private sector standards related to Good Agricultural Practices (GAP).
Available at http://www.fao.org/ag/ags/publications/docs/5_small-scale%20farmer.pdf
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IDS Working Papers - 308, 2008
This report focuses on the challenges and on the interactions between state and private sector involved in meeting them. It focuses particularly on EUREPGAP in Kenya. The introduction of the EUREPGAP private voluntary standard for export horticulture was particularly important for Kenya.
]]>IDS Working Papers - 308, 2008
This report focuses on the challenges and on the interactions between state and private sector involved in meeting them. It focuses particularly on EUREPGAP in Kenya. The introduction of the EUREPGAP private voluntary standard for export horticulture was particularly important for Kenya.
Horticultural exports to Europe have been a major contributor to the growth of the rural economy in Kenya since the 1980s, but EUREPGAP created major new challenges, particularly for smallholder horticulture. As a pre-farmgate, process standard, it required substantial changes in farming methods and greatly increased control over farming practices. These concerns increased because of the January 2005 deadline for EUREPGAP compliance, leading to a flurry of initiatives to support small farmer compliance with the new standard. This case study focuses on these initiatives, highlighting both the profound ways in which EUREPGAP affects small farmers and the extent to which these initiatives were based on a good understanding of both the challenges created and the role of the public sector in meeting them.
Available for download at http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/bookshop/wp/wp308.pdf
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by Jane Korinek, Mark Melatos and Marie-Luise Rau
ABSTRACT
This paper evaluates the different approaches to quantifying the trade impact of standards in the agri-food sector. The approaches discussed fall into two broad categories: ex post empirical estimation and ex ante simulation. Recent developments on the impact of standards on market segmentation are also examined. Since both the level and design of a standard are important determinants of its impact, the most suitable choice of quantification strategy will depends on the characteristics of the standard itself. For example, ex ante simulation techniques are more appropriate when measuring the impact of complex standards regimes. On the other hand, ex post empirical estimation is preferable when the level of the standard is more important than its design.
]]>by Jane Korinek, Mark Melatos and Marie-Luise Rau
ABSTRACT
This paper evaluates the different approaches to quantifying the trade impact of standards in the agri-food sector. The approaches discussed fall into two broad categories: ex post empirical estimation and ex ante simulation. Recent developments on the impact of standards on market segmentation are also examined. Since both the level and design of a standard are important determinants of its impact, the most suitable choice of quantification strategy will depends on the characteristics of the standard itself. For example, ex ante simulation techniques are more appropriate when measuring the impact of complex standards regimes. On the other hand, ex post empirical estimation is preferable when the level of the standard is more important than its design.
Available for download at http://lysander.sourceoecd.org/vl=1287629/cl=12/nw=1/rpsv/cgi-bin/wppdf?file=5kzc0mp2sc41.pdf
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The French company will send a team to inspect and verify shrimp products and farming practices of Kaset Somboon Farm Co to ensure the shrimp meet its standards and are free from chemical residue.
Food service operators, supermarkets and hypermarkets were now opting to deal with farmers directly to obtain freshness, get reasonable prices, and improve their ability to control quality, said Vanich Sowanapreecha, the owner of Kaset Somboon Farm Co which operates more than 20 shrimp ponds in Chachoengsao and Suphan Buri provinces.
According to Mr Vanich, the merchandising unit of Carrefour in Thailand has made trial orders of several tonnes of fresh and chilled shrimp from his farm for the past few months ago to distribute at its outlets in Thailand.
The French retailer could purchase as many as 10,000 tonnes a year from the farm for local outlets and some outlets overseas if the inspections, to be conducted sometime in January, show satisfactory results, he said.
The volume is considered big for Kaset Somboon Farm alone and it could arrange for other farmers to help it fulfill the shipments.
"Shrimp farmers now have more experience in making contracts with foreign food service providers themselves without using any brokers," he said.
Another operator, Chanthaburi-based Sureerath Farm, has supplied organic shrimp to Tops supermarkets and has now extended its distribution channels to Villa Supermarkets and Siam Paragon.
Kaset Somboon Farm and its allied farms also sell chilled shrimp to food markets in Busan and Seoul, Korea at up to 30-40 tonnes a day.
To meet freshness and chemical-free requirements, notably malachite residue, shrimp exported to South Korea are shipped on Thai Airways Internationals' late-night flights to ensure that they reach Korean markets in the morning, Mr Vanich said.
"New buyers in the pipeline are from China, Japan, Israel and Middle Eastern countries who want to buy chilled shrimp from farmers directly, not frozen ones that have a different taste and are mostly supplied from coldstorage companies," he said.
The Fisheries Department has been strongly encouraging farmers to enter food services markets abroad by themselves.
"The markets should be anywhere that takes less than 10 hours to transport shrimp," a department official said. "The fewer the better as some markets such as provinces along the coastline prefer consuming live shrimp."
To promote this export channel, the Fisheries Department has entered agreements with buying countries, such as a mutual-recognition agreement with South Korean fisheries authorities to speed product verification procedures.
The department also aims to see all 27,000 of Thailand's shrimp farms meet Good Agricultural Practice standards or better for marine shrimp farming this year, from about 21,000 at present.
The department estimates the export volume of shrimp to the food services industry to be 30,000 tonnes out of the estimated total of 370,000 tonnes of shrimp exports from Thailand this year.
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He says: "While we are very concerned about food miles and transportation issues we also feel that buying produce from abroad, especially Africa, is important because farmers depend on that produce.
]]>THE Co-Operative is one of the leading retailers of Fairtrade products. Brad Hill, strategic development manager, explained why Fairtrade produce is so important despite the issues surrounding food miles.
He says: "While we are very concerned about food miles and transportation issues we also feel that buying produce from abroad, especially Africa, is important because farmers depend on that produce.
"We decided we couldn't just abandon Fairtrade because we wanted to help people closer to home.
"Our way of looking at things is not just to examine food miles but to look at it in terms of fair miles, which means if a product has to be flown in, then we try to find a balance between the environmental impact versus social development."
Mr Hill also says it is important to support farmers in developing countries because those countries bare the brunt of global warming and climate change.
He says: "Those who live in the Northern hemisphere have traditionally been the main producers of green house gases that cause global warming because we are so industrialised and so the damage is being caused by us.
"Farmers in developing countries used to be able to depend on a steady climate and on the crops they produced but that has all changed."
Mr Hill says there are times when The Co-Operat ive decides not to purchase certain Fairtrade goods because they clashed with what UK farmers would have been growing.
"There was one incident when we were offered South African Fairtrade apples," he says.
"People automatically thought we would have them in stores but we decided to hold back on that product until the UK apple season finished.
"On that occasion we felt if we brought it into store it would have impacted on UK farmers."
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by ÉRIC GIRAUD-HÉRAUD AND LOUIS-GEORGES SOLER
in Quantifying the Agri-Food Supply Chain: Proceedings of the Frontis Workshop on Quantifying the agri-food supply chain, Wageningen, The Netherlands, 22-24 October 2004. Eds Christien J.M. Ondersteijn, Jo H.M. Wijnands, Ruud B.M. Huirne and Olaf van Kooten
]]>by ÉRIC GIRAUD-HÉRAUD AND LOUIS-GEORGES SOLER
in Quantifying the Agri-Food Supply Chain: Proceedings of the Frontis Workshop on Quantifying the agri-food supply chain, Wageningen, The Netherlands, 22-24 October 2004. Eds Christien J.M. Ondersteijn, Jo H.M. Wijnands, Ruud B.M. Huirne and Olaf van Kooten
Abstract. The growth of Private Label brands in the sector of fresh agricultural products is a recent occurrence closely related to the food and food-safety crises of recent years. While the public authorities were creating new control and health-monitoring procedures, tightening regulatory production standards and enhancing regulations related to official marks of quality, some retailers were adopting new segmentation strategies for demand. How have these strategies changed the demand for food? To what extent have they altered retailer-producer relationships and under what conditions would it be beneficial for the involved parties to make a commitment? How do these strategies interact with those of the public authorities?
Available free download at http://library.wur.nl/frontis/quantifying_supply_chain/06_soler.pdf
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UNCTAD, 2008
This UNCTAD study elaborates on crucial issues in complying with private-sector standards, in particular with GLOBALGAP, as an increasingly important element of market access for FFV exported from SSA. It draws on case studies in several SSA countries, and also provides an interregional perspective based on similar analyses conducted in South and Central America and South East Asia. It raises pertinent issues and ways of conceptualizing and shaping proactive approaches to GAP schemes that meet external market access requirements while securing maximum developmental benefits. In particular, it examines how such approaches could contribute to pro-poor development strategies.
http://www.unctad.org/trade_env/test1/publications/UNCTAD_DITC_TED_2007_13.pdf
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