Toward a more sustainable coffee production

This paper contributes to the literature on the emerging trend of Southern sustainability standards and certifications as a reaction to the Northern-based private standards by businesses and NGOs. It particularly analyzes the implementation capacity of ISCoffee as a public standard and certification initiated by the Indonesian government. We analyze the opportunities and barriers in the process of implementing ISCoffee and examine whether ISCoffee can become a viable alternative to Northern-based private standards and certification. We first conclude that the implementation capacity of ISCoffee is low, because of weak administrative structures, and communication and coordination deficiencies. Second, we conclude that ISCoffee will unlikely being able to solve smallholder-related problems in the coffee sector such as limited access to market, insufficient capital, and underdeveloped farmer organizations. Finally, we conclude that ISCoffee - on the short term - will not manage to become a viable alternative to Northern-based private standards and certifications

Sustainability Certification and Economic Performance An Analysis of Coffee Marketing Channels in Indonesia

It is generally assumed that sustainability certifications in the coffee sector may shorten the coffee chain, reduce transaction costs and market risks, improve market access, enhance knowledge of good agriculture practices, and in that way improve farmers’ livelihood. A fast-growing amount of academic literature examines the impact of sustainability certification on economic performance, but little is known about the influence of different types of marketing channels on efficiency and equity. In this paper we hypothesize that the type of channel is an important structural factor influencing the performance of the coffee production, independent from the fact whether it is certified or conventional coffee. This paper analyzes the performances of different types of coffee channels in terms of efficiency and equity. Efficiency is operationalized by looking at costs, profits and lead times, whereas equity is measured in terms of the division of marketing and profit margins over the actors in the channels. Our results indicate that certified channels are more efficient than non-certified channels although the most efficient channels are not necessarily the most equitable ones. Channels that perform relatively well are either certified or mixed: none of the conventional channels performed well. It is however questionable whether this positive performance results from the certification as the channel’s length and the domestic demand for high quality coffee seem to be more important explanations behind performance. Keywords: coffee certification; marketing channels; performance; efficiency; equit

Competing Explanations for Indonesian Smallholder Participations in Sustainability Coffee Certifications

The literature provides four competing explanations for farmer participation in sustainability standards and certification schemes: socio-demographic, economic, attitudinal, and institutional. However, little is known about the relative importance of these explanations. Knowledge about the relative importance is believed to lead to more effective standard implementation and smallholder inclusion. Up to now researchers provide different explanations for participation, and this paper aims to contribute to the literature by bringing some order in the current explanations. To assess the importance of the explanations mentioned in the literature, we collected questionnaire-data from Indonesian coffee smallholders in the  producing provinces of Aceh and Lampung, including 160 coffee farmers registered with global certification schemes (i.e. Rainforest Alliance, Utz certified, 4C, and Fair Trade), and uncertified farmers. The data were analysed with binary logistic regression. The results indicate that from the four competing explanations, the economic explanation is the most important, followed by the socio-demographic, institutional, and attitudinal explanations. Within the economic explanation, the prospect of a price premium and the prospect of increased productivity can be considered the most important motivations behind farmers’ participation. However, the prospect of increased productivity was only prevalent among farmers participating in 4C and Fairtrade. Utz and Rainforest Alliance farmers did not expect their productivity to increase through certification prior to their participation in the schemes.  Given these results, we conclude that it is difficult to establish a blue print for participation for all type of farmers. Keywords: sustainability certification, coffee certification, binary logistic regression, farmer participation, explanation for participation, Indonesi

The reliability of product-specific eco-labels as an agrobiodiversity management instrument

This paper seeks to understand why multinationals prefer to launch a label specific to their own product and examines how reliable these product-specific eco-labels are. A new methodology is applied to assess the extent to which eco-labels live up to claims about their contribution to conservation and the sustainable use of agricultural biodiversity. Product-specific eco-labels are considered as industry self-regulation and all three regulatory stages are studied: the planning, implementation and outcome stage. There are major differences between the product specific eco-labels in the degree in which agrobiodiversity management is part of the normative labeling schemes. Although there are some problems of reliability, such as transparency in the implementation stage and the monitoring in the outcome stage, the degree of reliability of product-specific labels is comparable with eco-labels of international labeling families. The conclusion is that only one of the product-specific eco-labels examined here is reliable when examined in the light of all three stages. The main reason why multinationals establish a product-specific eco-label instead of adopting one from an existing labeling family is that they want to profile themselves as distinct from other companies. The unique character of a product-specific label creates a market opportunity for them

Environmental policy in an international context. : Voleme 2 : Conflicts

Londonxvi, 302 p.; 25 cm

Environmental policy in an international context. : Voleme 3 : Prospects

Londonxiii, 257 p.; 25 cm

Environmental policy in an international context. : Voleme 1 : Perspectives.

Londonxii, 193 p.; 25 cm