Global Newsletter July 2007

June 11, 2007 |

Exploring ways to create opportunities and identify favourable outcomes for small-scale producers in developing countries to participate in international horticultural supply chains - in particular those in the UK. The rise of private standards and the current and changing public standards impacting the horticultural sector give strong concerns that the way these supply chains are managed – through standards and certification processes – are also a potential barrier to entry for smaller producers and enterprises. Over a three-year period, the project will work with food retailers, importers, standard-setting bodies, traders and producers towards ensuring that supply chain standards and other procurement practices do not discriminate against small-scale producers, with a focus on African export horticulture.

Welcome to the first Agrifoodstandards newsletter

In this issue: New Publications, Forthcoming Happenings, News Roundup

New: You can subscribe to RSS Newsfeeds for AgrifoodStandards News at www.agrifoodstandards.net . For more information on RSS click here.

New Publications

Compliance with Private Voluntary Standards (PVS's) mainly concerning food safety is becoming the norm for producers wishing to enter dynamic food retail markets in the EU. A series of studies have been commissioned into the impact of EurepGAP on small-scale growers in Africa.

In addition, there are rising concerns of the environmental impacts of global transport of fresh-produce. The term food-miles has become common, particularly in the UK, with emphasis being placed by many environmental and UK farming groups of ‘buying local'. IIED and DFID have commissioned a series of papers to look at the environmental, social, and economic aspects of the food miles issue within the context of sustainable development and livelihoods of small-scale producers in Africa.

The papers are divided into two distinct series called Fresh Insights and Fresh Perspectives. Fresh Insights is a series of technical working papers which are fully referenced and peer reviewed. Fresh Perspectives is a series of short opinion briefing papers written by key stakeholders on issues central to the debate over the impact of private voluntary standards and sustainable development. These bite-sized pieces are designed to fast-track the reader on a specific issue and aims to guide the debate. All are available both in freely downloadable pdf format from www.agrifoodstandards.net and as paper copies from IIED. The series titles are summarised below.

Fresh Insights

Fresh Insights 1 - EU requirements for imports of fresh fruit and vegetables: A Supplier's Guide

Fresh Insights 2 - Sub-Saharan African horticultural exports to the UK and climate change: a literature review

Fresh Insights 3 - Virtual water: a case study of green beans and flowers exported to the UK from Africa

Fresh Insights 4 - A Lifecycle Analysis of UK Supermaket imported green beans from Kenya

Fresh Insights 5 - Impact of EurepGAP on small-scale vegetable growers in Zambia

Fresh Insights 6 - Impact of EurepGAP on small-scale vegetable growers in Kenya

Fresh Insights 7 - Mapping Different Supply Chains of Fresh Produce Exports from Africa to the UK

Fresh Insights 8: Ecological space and a low-carbon future -- crafting space for equitable economic development in Africa

Fresh Insights 9: Fair Miles? Weighing environmental and social impacts of fresh produce exports from sub-Saharan Africa to the UK (Summary)

Fresh Perspectives

Fresh Perspectives Issue 1: African Air Freight of Fresh Produce: is ‘virtual' water transport causing drought?

Fresh Perspectives Issue 2: Impact of EurepGAP on small-scale vegetable growers in Kenya

Fresh Perspectives Issue 3: Impact of EurepGAP on small-scale vegetable growers in Zambia

Fresh Perspectives Issue 4: "Fair miles"? The concept of "food miles" through a sustainable development lens

Forthcoming Happenings

The work on EurepGAP compliance has led to some interesting statistics for small-holder participation in the scheme. In Kenya 60% of those small-holders involved in 2003 are no longer EurepGAP members. The untold story is what has happened to this 60% and how have their livelihoods been affected. This will be a further piece of work which will take place in 2007.

We will also be participating in the Second European Forum on Sustainable Rural Development in June on a panel session with the question: "How can rural producers in Africa become more competitive in the face of globalisation and supply chain integration?". Later in the year we will be participating in the World Bank organised Trade and Standards Practitioners Network (TSPN) the aim of which is to share lessons from past and on-going work in order to strengthen the capacities of developing country producers, firms, and other stakeholders to apply and benefit from improved agro-food standards.

In the first phase of the AgrifoodStandards project a mapping exercise of supply chains from African producers to UK retailers was carried out. A second stage mapping will be carried out to drill-down into the supply chains of non-retail (wholesale) import of fresh fruit and vegetables into the UK from Africa , the results of which are due in July.

The air-freight debate continues with vigour, and now includes the recent announcement of a BSI led standard on carbon labelling. The Standards project is attending frequent seminars on airfreight and carbon labelling, inputing its views and will keep subscribers informed of developments.

News Roundup

EurepGAP chooses ambassador for Africa

Source: Freshinfo 2 Jun 2007

EurepGAP has appointed Dr Johannes Kern as the observer for Africa in the EurepGAP sector committees, for an initial period until December 2008.

The role is expected to provide technical support to EurepGAP members in developing nations, with Kern also expected to play the part of smallholder ambassador by further facilitating compliance of smallholder farms to the food-safety standard.

Kern will operate in a largely independent capacity linking with key stakeholders and contributing to the standard-setting process. He will be involved in establishing new frameworks for best practice in smallholder certification.

Good Agricultural Practices are becoming a prerequisite for market access

UNCTAD: Producers of fresh fruit and vegetables in Eastern and Southern Africa face stringent food safety and environmental standards set by private retailers in key export markets. A joint UNCTAD/FAO workshop "Good Agriculture Pracitces in Eastern & Southern Africa: Practices and Policies" which took place in Nairobi, Kenya. 6-9 March 2007, addressed this challenge and explored related opportunities.

This workshop was organised by FAO, UNCTAD (under it's Consultative Task Force on Environmental Requirements and Market Access for Developing Countries), and the Kenyan National Task Force on Horticulture as part of their on-going activities on appropriate good agricultural practices to foster national food safety and quality, sustainable natural resource management, fair working conditions and facilitate market access.

Background note and presentations available for download at http://www.unctad.org/trade_env/meeting.asp?MeetingID=217

Planes, Brains, & Automobiles: a more rounded look at transport & "food miles"

A new feature article by Sarah Murray in the UK Financial Times looks at trade and the environment in perspective. She examines the long history of trade from the ingenious methods used by our ancestors to transport goods from all over the world to current demands for buying local and reducing carbon footprint.

Murray discusses the complexity of calculating the true carbon footprint of a particular good, including the use of carbon-heavy fertilisers, imported feed, and whether to include the high energy element of cooking and transporting from the supermarket to domestic home in calculating whether a raw potato has a heavier footprint than pre-packed mashed potato.

The simplicity of transportation, or "food miles" as a carbon measure is appealing to consumers but Murray speaks with many academics and business people as to the dangers of taking food-miles as a single ‘out of context' element in a complex process; one where for example the total carbon footprint of transported New Zealand lamb is lower than British lamb. That is not to mention the developmental benefits that trade of goods has with developing nations in areas such as Africa. According to the International Institute for Environment and Development the strong appetite of British consumers for fresh fruit and vegetables supports the livelihoods of over 1 million Africans, whilst only contributing to 0.1 per cent of total UK carbon emissions.

Full article available here

July 18, 2007 | New Paper: Changes in the Governance of Global Value Chains of Fresh Fruit and Vegetables

Opportunities and Challenges for Producers in Sub-Saharan Africa

Horticultural trade, especially exports of fresh fruits and vegetables (FFV) from Sub-Saharan African countries to the European market, has received a great deal of attention over the past decade. This is due to its rapid and sustained growth. This rapid growth has undoubtedly contributed to increased national income and reduced rural poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa with clear evidence from Kenya, South Africa and partly Zimbabwe. Yet, despite this growth, the inclusion and proportion of the rent obtained from this lucrative business for smallholder farmers, who in the past used to be major players, have worsened in the past decade.

July 11, 2007 | New drive to market flowers in UK

Kenya has launched a "Grown Under the Sun" campaign to inform British consumers about the development benefits associated with buying fresh produce from Kenya as the food miles and carbon footprints debate continues.

June 6, 2007 | Stage set for eighth EurepGAP conference

The eighth annual EurepGAP conference will take place this year in Bangkok, Thailand, on 6-7 September 2007.

The EurepGAP Asia Conference will cover the latest developments with retailers and major suppliers operating in the region, present the latest version of the EurepGAP protocol and what is new in the standard and will feature presentations about food safety and sustainability from experts in the field.

June 1, 2007 | Eco-label may hit UK high street

A new eco-label could soon show the environmental damage caused by goods and services in shops, as part of a government carbon footprint project.

The scheme will be used on packaging to help consumers understand the climate change impact of different products, and could be the first step towards developing an international carbon footprint standard.

May 29, 2007 | Ban considered on organic food brought in by air

The Observer, May 27, 2007

Food flown into the UK could be stripped of its organic label if the Soil Association goes ahead with controversial plans to deal with major loopholes in its rulebook. The organisation - responsible for giving organic status to food sold in Britain - is considering the introduction of restrictions, or even a ban, on produce imported by air.
A ban, which would have widespread for shoppers, is being considered because senior Soil Association executives have become increasingly worried that they are encouraging carbon-emitting flights into Britain.

May 24, 2007 | METRO puts pressure on suppliers over smart electronic tagging (RFID)

Last week, Metro Group invited 600 suppliers to Düsseldorf, Germany, to put more pressure on them about implementing RFID. According to Lebensmittel Zeitung, board members at Metro announced that the usage of RFID will play a role in the coming yearly range reviews.

It has expanded the use of smart tags from its stores in Europe to key producers in China as the German retail giant moves to optimize its global logistics chain as part of a 3 month trial.

May 31, 2007 | M&S revises Field to Fork assurance

Marks and Spencer launched the new version of its Field to Fork assurance scheme this week, widening its scope beyond the boundaries first set when it was unveiled five years ago. It comes into force on June 1.

May 18, 2007 | Growers face further audit stress

Source: www.freshinfo.com. Story published: Thu 17 May 07

Growers may have to brace themselves for significantly tougher audit inspections as a result of the latest EurepGap revision.

That unwelcome prospect was put forward by Stephen Cox, international produce director at CMi Certification, who was speaking at last week's Re:fresh conference. He said that as the Assured Produce Scheme is benchmarked to EurepGap standards, growers could expect a ‘quantum leap' in terms of demands.

In particular, Cox noted that EurepGap was made significantly more robust during its latest revision, announced at Fruit Logistica in February. This includes a 10 percent increase in control points, to 237, and an even more significant rise in the number of major control points.

May 14, 2007 | Investor forces supply ethics on to Tesco agenda

A small shareholder has amassed enough support to force the issue of ethical trading with suppliers onto the agenda at Tesco's annual shareholders' meeting.