A joint UNCTAD/FAO workshop, scheduled to take place in Nairobi, 6-9 March, will address the challenge of fruit and vegetable producers in Eastern and Southern Africa facing stringent food safety and environmental standards set by private retailers in key export markets and explore related opportunities.
Although not legally binding in a regulatory sense, private sector standards such as EurepGAP are de facto becoming mandatory from a commercial, buying-power perspective in markets of industrialized countries. By combining food safety with environmental health and worker's health and safety requirements, these standards are intended to promote environmentally sustainable production methods. Compliance with these standards represents a major challenge for developing country producers and exporters. In many cases, however, such standards have played a positive role, providing the catalyst and incentives for the modernization of export supply and regulatory systems and the adoption of safer, more efficient and thus more sustainable production and processing practices.
More developing countries are endeavouring to better understand the role and implications of private sector standards for access to export markets. Yet there is still a glaring lack of empirical studies on the implications of private sector requirements and appropriate adjustment policies.
The development of corporate food safety and quality standards as one key determinant of access to the biggest and most lucrative global food markets undoubtedly challenges conventional food standards diplomacy, which is based on government-to-government relations. Against this background, systematic dialogue on private sector standards in the context of UNCTAD's Consultative Task Force (CTF) on Environmental Requirements and Market Access for Developing Countries provides a much-needed platform for formal exchange between governmental and other stakeholders that are normally not involved in WTO debates.
Private sector standards, such as EurepGAP, have increasingly important implications for exports of fresh fruit and vegetables from Eastern and Southern African countries. Whereas large producers are generally able to certify their production directly and individually against standards for fruit and vegetables, small and medium-sized producers who opt for this alternative tend to face significant difficulties. Developing countries can explore several options to facilitate achievement of certification for small and medium-sized producers, such as group certification, development of national interpretation guidelines, and benchmarking of a locally developed standard for Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) against standards for fruit and vegetables. They can also seek to promote recognition of national GAP schemes in export markets.
Locally developed standards offer an opportunity to take local regulatory, agronomic, social and other conditions into account, but a number of questions remain to be clarified.
- What is the role of Governments in developing countries in conceptualizing national GAP codes, and what supportive and flanking policies may be required?
- How can national GAP codes be designed to ensure that the interests of small-scale producers and domestic markets in developing countries are reflected?
- Are national GAPs gaining recognition in international markets?
- Does benchmarking allow developing countries to combine the benefits of a locally developed GAP standard with buyer recognition in international markets?
- What are the pros and cons of benchmarking vis-à-vis other options for EurepGAP and other standards of certification?
- What factors would have to be reflected in a national standard that could be benchmarked?
- How can developing countries seek to influence private sector standard-setting?
The workshop will rally all relevant governmental and non-governmental stakeholders from Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and special invitees from Ghana, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe to discuss the developmental implications of and proactive adjustment measures to new private sector standards on environmental, health and food safety requirements.
