Abstract
In the past two decades the international food retail sector has been dominated by two major trends: a) increasing consumer concerns about the sustainability of production and trading practices from a human, ecologic and economic point of view, and b) a process of enlargement of scale in production and trade and a rapid spread of supermarkets around the globe. As the supermarket sector develops, leading chains are rapidly adopting technological, organisational, and institutional changes in their product procurement systems. These changes alter the market that farmers face, and have the potential to substantially transform the nature, composition, and volume of trade. These trends in turn present both opportunities and challenges for development, especially of less advanced and small producer organisations in the third world. There has been growing evidence that small producer organisations risk being excluded from the markets.
AgroFair applies a business model that provides an answer to gaining market access for smallholder producers. One of AgroFair’s central pillars is the concept of co-ownership in a vertically integrated supply chain. The credentials are embedded in its vision statement : A Fair Price, A Fair Say and a Fair Share. Fifty percent of the shares of the company are in the hands of the international producer cooperative CPAF (Cooperative Producers AgroFair) while the other fifty percent is in the hands of European NGOs and sustainable venture capitalists. Based on its business model it has reached the status of preferred supplier to leading retailer COOP Swiss which has enabled it to capture 40% of the Swiss banana market with its fair trade certified products. Recently Finnish SIWA made a similar choice due to AgroFair being a company that explicitly proliferates the co-ownership of Latin American and African producers and the development impact on communities of smallholder producers and workers. Since 2004, AgroFair’s turnover has been growing with double digit figures; in 2006 it reached EUR 66 million with a net profit of more than EUR1 million. This chapter describes the history of the AgroFair business model and analyzes the crucial elements that contributed to its success.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Nicholls A. and C. Opal (2004). Fair Trade market driven ethical consumption. Sage Publications ltd, London,
Arias P., Dankers, C., Lui, P., and P. Pilkauskas (2003). The world banana economy 1985 – 2002 (FAO), Rome.
Codron, J.-M., Sirieix, L. and T. Reardon (2006). Social and environmental attributes of food products in an emerging mass market: Challenges of signalling and consumer perception. Agriculture and Human Values, 23(3) Fall Issue. Pp. 283-297.
Meer, C.L.J. van der (2006). Exclusion of small-scale farmers from coordinated supply chains. Market failure, policy failure or just economies of scale?. In: R. Ruben, M. Slingerland and H. Nijhoff (Eds.), Agro-food chains and networks for development. Springer, 209-217. Wageningen.
Klein, N. (1999). No Logo, St Martin’s Press, Picador, New York USA.
Reardon, T. (2006). The rapid rise of supermarkets and the use of private standards in their food procurement systems in developing countries. In: R. Ruben, M. Slingerland and H. Nijhoff (Eds.), Agro-food chains and networks for development,Springer, pp. 79-105.
Roozen, N. and F. van der Hoff (2003) Fair Trade. Van Gennep, Amsterdam
Websites
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Leegte, R., Kroezen, J., Boselie, D. (2009). Fostering Co-ownership in Sustainable International Value Chains. In: Management Models for the Future. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-71451-4_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-71451-4_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-71450-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-71451-4
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsBusiness and Management (R0)