IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ecgeog/v86y2010i2p197-222.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Global Standards, Local Realities: Private Agrifood Governance and the Restructuring of the Kenyan Horticulture Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Stefan Ouma

Abstract

Over the past decade, private food safety and quality standards have become focal points in the supply chain management of large retailers, reshaping governance patterns in global agrifood chains. In this article, I analyze the relationship between private collective standards and the governance of agrifood markets, using the EUREPGAP/GLOBALGAP standard as a vantage point. I discuss the impact of this standard on the organization of supply chains of fresh vegetables in the Kenyan horticulture industry, focusing on the supply chain relationships and practices among exporters and smallholder farmers. In so doing, I seek to highlight the often‐contested nature of the implementation of standards in social fields that are marked by different and distributed principles of evaluating quality, production processes, and legitimate actions in the marketplace. I also reconstruct the challenges and opportunities that exporters and farmers are facing with regard to the implementation of and compliance with standards. Finally, I elaborate on the scope for action that producers and policymakers have under these structures to retain sectoral competitiveness in a global economy of qualities.

Suggested Citation

  • Stefan Ouma, 2010. "Global Standards, Local Realities: Private Agrifood Governance and the Restructuring of the Kenyan Horticulture Industry," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 86(2), pages 197-222, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecgeog:v:86:y:2010:i:2:p:197-222
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1944-8287.2009.01065.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-8287.2009.01065.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1944-8287.2009.01065.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Unknown, 2005. "Forward," 2005 Conference: Slovenia in the EU - Challenges for Agriculture, Food Science and Rural Affairs, November 10-11, 2005, Moravske Toplice, Slovenia 183804, Slovenian Association of Agricultural Economists (DAES).
    2. Maertens, Miet & Swinnen, Johan F.M., 2009. "Trade, Standards, and Poverty: Evidence from Senegal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 161-178, January.
    3. Neil M. Coe & Peter Dicken & Martin Hess, 2008. "Global production networks: realizing the potential," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(3), pages 271-295, May.
    4. Freidberg, Susanne, 2004. "French Beans and Food Scares: Culture and Commerce in an Anxious Age," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195169614.
    5. Asfaw, Solomon & Mithofer, Dagmar & Waibel, Hermann, 2007. "What Impact Are EU Supermarket Standards Having on Developing Countries Export of High-Value Horticultural Products? Evidence from Kenya," 105th Seminar, March 8-10, 2007, Bologna, Italy 7870, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    6. Callon, Michel, 2005. "Why virtualism paves the way to political impotence: A reply to Daniel Miller's critique of "The laws of the market"," economic sociology. perspectives and conversations, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, vol. 6(2), pages 3-20.
    7. Jaffee, Steve & Masakure, Oliver, 2005. "Strategic use of private standards to enhance international competitiveness: Vegetable exports from Kenya and elsewhere," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 316-333, June.
    8. Hatanaka, Maki & Bain, Carmen & Busch, Lawrence, 2005. "Third-party certification in the global agrifood system," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 354-369, June.
    9. Khalid Nadvi, 2008. "Global standards, global governance and the organization of global value chains," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(3), pages 323-343, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fontaine, Damien & Gaspart, Frederic & Frahan, Bruno Henry de, 2008. "Modelling the impact of private quality standards on the fresh fruit and vegetable supply chains in developing countries," 2008 International Congress, August 26-29, 2008, Ghent, Belgium 44378, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Isabel Maria Bodas Freitas & Michiko Iizuka, 2012. "A multi-level analysis of the diffusion of standards compliance in Latin America," Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) hal-01487512, HAL.
    3. Bodas Freitas, Isabel Maria & Iizuka, Michiko, 2012. "Openness to international markets and the diffusion of standards compliance in Latin America. A multi level analysis," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 201-215.
    4. Sarah Bowen & Tad Mutersbaugh, 2014. "Local or localized? Exploring the contributions of Franco-Mediterranean agrifood theory to alternative food research," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(2), pages 201-213, June.
    5. Neda Trifković, 2014. "Food Standards and Vertical Coordination in Aquaculture: The Case of Pangasius from Vietnam," IFRO Working Paper 2014/01, University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics.
    6. McWilliam, Sarah E. & Kim, Jung Kwan & Mudambi, Ram & Nielsen, Bo Bernhard, 2020. "Global value chain governance: Intersections with international business," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(4).
    7. Elena Baglioni, 2018. "Labour control and the labour question in global production networks: exploitation and disciplining in Senegalese export horticulture," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(1), pages 111-137.
    8. Kersting, Sarah & Wollni, Meike, 2012. "New institutional arrangements and standard adoption: Evidence from small-scale fruit and vegetable farmers in Thailand," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 452-462.
    9. Xinyu Yang & Weidong Liu, 2022. "Agricultural Production Networks and Upgrading from a Global–Local Perspective: A Review," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-14, October.
    10. Jiping Ding & Paule Moustier & Xingdong Ma & Xuexi Huo & Xiangping Jia, 2019. "Doing but not knowing: how apple farmers comply with standards in China," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 36(1), pages 61-75, March.
    11. Stefano Ponte, 2007. "Bans, tests, and alchemy: Food safety regulation and the Uganda fish export industry," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 24(2), pages 179-193, June.
    12. Ding, J. & Jia, X. & Huo, X. & Moustier, P., 2018. "Doing But Not Knowing: How Apple Farmers Comply with Standards in China," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277444, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    13. Linqing Liu & Shiye Mei, 2016. "Visualizing the GVC research: a co-occurrence network based bibliometric analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 109(2), pages 953-977, November.
    14. Stephanie Barrientos & Peter Knorringa & Barbara Evers & Margareet Visser & Maggie Opondo, 2016. "Shifting regional dynamics of global value chains: Implications for economic and social upgrading in African horticulture," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(7), pages 1266-1283, July.
    15. Katharina Plassmann, 2018. "Comparing voluntary sustainability initiatives and product carbon footprinting in the food sector, with a particular focus on environmental impacts and developing countries," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 36(4), pages 503-523, July.
    16. Pasquali, Giovanni & Krishnan, Aarti & Alford, Matthew, 2021. "Multichain strategies and economic upgrading in global value chains: Evidence from Kenyan horticulture," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    17. Maertens, Miet & Verhofstadt, Ellen, 2013. "Horticultural exports, female wage employment and primary school enrolment: Theory and evidence from Senegal," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 118-131.
    18. Margareet Visser & Matthew Alford, 2024. "Governance and Power Across Intersecting Value Chains: The Case of South African Apples," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 189(1), pages 69-86, January.
    19. Islam, Md. Saidul, 2008. "From pond to plate: Towards a twin-driven commodity chain in Bangladesh shrimp aquaculture," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 209-223, June.
    20. Schipmann, Christin & Qaim, Matin, 2009. "Modern Supply Chains and Product Innovation: How Can Smallholder Farmers Benefit?," 2009 Conference, August 16-22, 2009, Beijing, China 51046, International Association of Agricultural Economists.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ecgeog:v:86:y:2010:i:2:p:197-222. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/declaus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.