Trade issues background paper: The impact of subsidies on trade in fisheries products

World attention was drawn to the scale of the global fisheries crisis and also the extent of fishery subsidies in 1992 with the publication of an FAO report, Marine Fisheries and the Law of the Sea: A Decade of Change. This report highlighted two main causes of the crisis: first many fisheries were not managed and were open access fisheries, and second ‘the annual operating costs greater than total revenues, with no account being taken of capital costs’ (as cited by Schrank 2003), i.e. marine fisheries were heavily subsidized, eliminating the market signals of over-fishing. Subsequently a number of reports have attempted to clarify what constitutes a subsidy and to estimate their magnitude. This debate has focused largely on developed country fisheries and fishing fleets and there is limited information on developing countries or at the micro level. Debates at the policy level have included submissions to the World Trade Organisation to investigate the trade status of fisheries subsidies and in the words of the US delegation to the WTO to take steps ‘toward the development of clarified and improved disciplines’ (WTO 2003). There are also on-going discussions in the FAO

Drivers and barriers to sustainable purchasing practices in the cocoa sector (NRET Working Paper July 2007)

[Summary] Sustainability is an area of growing concern for both the cocoa producing countries and the chocolate manufacturing industry. There is a growing consensus on principles underlying sustainable purchasing practices. Industry sustainability practices do not necessarily include sustainable purchasing practices. Better understanding of the roles, responsibilities, and motivations of key stakeholders in cocoa value chains is required to promote sustainable purchasing practices. Support for extending ‘alternative’ trading and pilot projects is required to build on initiatives that demonstrate best practice in purchasing can meet economic, social, and environmental aims

Ethical consumers and ethical trade: a review of current literature (NRI Policy Series 12)

This publication reviews the large number of consumer surveys of ethical consumerism, and describes the different types of ethical consumer, their motivation and concerns, their willingness to pay an ethical premium, and the ways they learn about ethical products. It shows how different survey methodologies affect what we know and do not know about ethical consumerism, and highlights how methodological shortcomings are starting to be addressed.The publication reveals that ethical consumerism is a complex phenomenon, something that those calling for greater consumer awareness of ethical issues need to understand when promoting different forms of ethical trade. The fair-trade and organic movements have been at the forefront of understanding this phenomenon, and their experiences offer lessons for the commercial mainstream, particularly the importance of information and awareness as a prerequisite for action. These lessons are also crucial for international development agencies that need to understand the operation of Northern markets if their investment in ethical approaches to trade in developing countries is to pay dividends

Towards an ethical jewellery business

This report presents the results of phase 1 of research which is intended to identify the main social, environmental and ethical issues in the jewellery sector and to assist industry bodies in identifying how to integrate ethical considerations into their activities. The phase one report is based on an extensive review of literature related to ethical issues in the jewellery sector, covering ethical issues throughout the jewellery supply chain, from extraction of jewellery materials by mining processes, through to the retail of finished jewellery. In addition to highlighting established existing knowledge and literature in this field, our report highlights gaps in the literature and understanding that will influence the form and focus of more applied research to be proposed for phase two of the project

Assessment of needs and feasibility of commercial production of tropical fruits and vegetables for diversified exports in Ethiopia and Sudan

Diversification into the production and export of horticultural crops is a strategy increasingly adopted by developing countries to enhance incomes, employment and foreign exchange earnings. However, a relatively small number of countries dominate exports of horticultural products from Sub-Saharan Africa and for most African countries the horticulture export sector has remained very small and/or has experienced severe bottlenecks to expansion. The Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) is financing projects to assist Least Developed Countries in the diversification of their commodity exports. As part of this programme, the CFC is funding this pilot project in Ethiopia and the Sudan to assess the needs and feasibility of developing commercial production of high value tropical fruit and vegetable products based on these countries' comparative advantage. The purpose of this report is to identify and prioritise the various capacity building measures that need to be devised and developed to overcome these constraints and thus facilitate an expansion of fruit and vegetable exports. The aim is to advise the relevant international and national institutions on modalities to adopt in order to strengthen the existing horticultural strategy in Ethiopia and Sudan and thus reduce poverty while enhancing the livelihood benefits accruing. The report has five chapters. The first is an introduction, while aspects of horticultural production and trade in Ethiopia and Sudan are discussed in Chapters 2 and 3 respectively. Chapter 4 reviews the international market situation looking specifically at European Union and Middle East markets. Chapter 5 contains conclusions and recommendations of the study. In addition, there are 7 Annexes, covering methodology, contacts and itinerary, workshops in Sudan and Ethiopia, detailed production and trade data, and materials consulted

Gender and ethical trade: A mapping of the issues in African horticulture

Codes of conduct covering employment conditions of Southern producers exporting to European markets mushroomed throughout the 1990s. A recent article (Blowfield 2000) cited over 200 codes related to worker welface specifically, and over twenty codes applied to agriculture in developing countries.1 Codes have become very prevalent in the UK food retail sector, and most of the large supermarkets are now implementing codes along their supply chains to cover their own brand name products and fresh produce. But codes of conduct are also evolving at multiple levels both internally and externally to supply chains as various actors such as importers, exporters and local trade associations have adopted their own codes. Externally, independent standards have been established through organisations such as Social Accountability 8000 in the US and the Ethical Trading Initiative in the UK. As a result, suppliers of horticultural products are faced with a plethora of codes, some of which are similar, but amongst which there can be considerable variability

Increasing the involvement of smallholders in high-value horticulture: Lessons from Zimbabwe

This report describes a dialogue with the Zimbabwean horticultural industry, and particularly with the exporter Hortico, which together with Selbys, is one of two horticultural exporters sourcing substantial quantities from smallholders. The aim was to identify and test new approaches that would reduce the risks inherent in such schemes, thereby accelerating their development

‘I prefer 30°’?: Business strategies for influencing consumer laundry practices to reduce carbon emissions

This paper analyses businesses' initiatives to influence consumption carbon emissions in home laundering, principally by persuading consumers to wash clothes at lower temperatures. A number of voluntary business initiatives have sought to change consumer practices, coming from detergent manufacturers, their industry association and retailers. This paper analyses their impact at system level, by assessing the coevolutionary interactions between ‘Supply’, from consumer-facing firms, whose principle business is to sell products to consumers, both manufacturing and retailing, and ‘Demand’ from consumers, whose interactions with the businesses arise from shopping, using and receiving consumer messages from the firms. The research analyses the interactions between the business case drivers for presentation of consumer messages to reduce laundry emissions and the drivers of changes in consumer laundry practices. This enables inductive inference of the causal relationships over time between businesses’ strategies to communicate with consumers and changes in users’ laundry temperatures. The paper concludes that, in spite of considerable efforts and resources, these business initiatives have not resulted in the intended level of change in consumer practice that would deliver significant emissions reductions. Consumption emissions from households are a result of interdependent systems of provision, technologies and infrastructure, so stronger actions by business to influence consumer practices as well as further regulatory drivers are likely to be needed to deliver stricter emission reduction targets. This research contributes to the field of sustainable consumption through bringing together a coevolutionary framework with theories of business model innovation and social practices, in order to analyse whole systems of competing businesses’ strategies in context with technologies, institutions and ecosystems

A review of the literature and knowledge of standards and certification systems in agricultural production and farming systems (NRI working paper series on sustainability standards No. 2)

In this review we closely follow the terms of reference set by RESOLV, with respect to the standards summarised below in Table 1.2, specifically: organic, GlobalGAP, Fairtrade, the Sustainable Agriculture Network standard (known as SAN, and sometimes referred to as the Rainforest Alliance (RA) standard), and Utz Certified), plus two newer standards – the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and the Roundtable on Responsible Soy (RTRS) standards. In most of the text the discussion focuses on the first five of these standards according to the availability of literature and the length of time that the standards have been in operation (RTRS only published its standard in June 2010 with its first certification in June 2011; RSPO Principles were agreed in 2005 followed by the criteria and indicators agreed 2007 and the first certification took place in 2008). So in section 1 we focus on the market for certified agricultural products exploring trends in supply and demand including reflections on how consumers and companies influence these trends. In section 2 we begin by discussing the evolving methodologies in use to assess impacts of standards and standards systems. Informed by this methodological understanding, we provide a summary of key findings from a variety of studies on particular standards or groups of standards in agriculture. In section 3 we consider the relative effectiveness of certification systems both in relation to each other and compared to other approaches to improving ‘sustainability performance’. Following this in section 4 we discuss communication of the standards to the public and public awareness of different standards. Here we explore the complex relationship with public regulation and also consider ways other than standards which may facilitate improvements. The concluding section summarises the key findings and presents our analysis of the gaps in knowledge that exist. We propose a research agenda that will enhance our understanding of standards and certification systems operating in agriculture, particularly with respect to how they meet their objectives and broader impacts, intended and unintended

Ethical trade in African horticulture : gender, rights and participation

Codes of conduct covering employment conditions of southern producers have gained popularity over the past decade. In African horticulture employers now face a plethora of codes coming from supermarkets, importers, exporters and trade associations. Women constitute the majority of workers in African export horticulture. However, men are often in permanent employment, whereas women tend to work in temporary and insecure jobs. This report provides an in-depth assessment of gender and ethical trade in South African fruit, Kenyan flowers and Zambian flowers and vegetables. It examines the gendered needs and rights of workers, as articulated by workers themselves, and how these could best be addressed by codes of conduct. The research paid particular attention to vulnerable groups such as women and seasonal, casual and migrant workers, who typically face a different set of constraints and opportunities in employment. This paper discusses the nature of employment and working conditions found in the subsectors, and the varying perspectives of workers and employers toward these conditions. It summarises key gender issues in employment and outlines how they relate to codes. It explores the benefits of “participatory social auditing” for assessing workplace issues, especially gender issues. It describes the value of a local multi-stakeholder approach to code implementation and the extent to which stakeholders in South Africa, Kenya and Zambia have embraced the process thus far. Finally it identifies policy recommendations for best practice in code implementation