#11 What is the effect of environmental standards on agricultural value chains?
04/21/23 • 30 min
Mangos or rice, chocolate or even wood - just to mention a few agricultural products that are heavily exported from several countries in the Global South to the Global North. A growing number of them are grown, harvested and processed in line with environmental standards and labels. These standards are meant to improve environmental conditions. And consumers might think a environment friendly label also improves the social conditions: It just sounds plausible - because whoever cares for the environment also cares for the workers and the small smallholder farmers, right? Well: many certification schemes do consider more dimensions of sustainability - but not all. And there is an increasing evidence that some environmental standards do even worsen the social and economic conditions of firms and farms in the Global South.
In this episode we want to have a look at this evidence. Our moderator Nicolas Martin is discussing this with Aarti Krishnan. She is a development economist working on value chains and green growth at the University of Manchester.
https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/aarti.krishnan-2
https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=CS46MiwAAAAJ
Krishnan, A., De Marchi, V., & Ponte, S. (2022). Environmental upgrading and downgrading in global value chains: A framework for analysis. Economic Geography, 1-26.
Krauss, J. E., & Krishnan, A. (2022). Global decisions versus local realities: Sustainability standards, priorities and upgrading dynamics in agricultural global production networks. Global Networks, 22(1), 65-88.
Mangos or rice, chocolate or even wood - just to mention a few agricultural products that are heavily exported from several countries in the Global South to the Global North. A growing number of them are grown, harvested and processed in line with environmental standards and labels. These standards are meant to improve environmental conditions. And consumers might think a environment friendly label also improves the social conditions: It just sounds plausible - because whoever cares for the environment also cares for the workers and the small smallholder farmers, right? Well: many certification schemes do consider more dimensions of sustainability - but not all. And there is an increasing evidence that some environmental standards do even worsen the social and economic conditions of firms and farms in the Global South.
In this episode we want to have a look at this evidence. Our moderator Nicolas Martin is discussing this with Aarti Krishnan. She is a development economist working on value chains and green growth at the University of Manchester.
https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/aarti.krishnan-2
https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=CS46MiwAAAAJ
Krishnan, A., De Marchi, V., & Ponte, S. (2022). Environmental upgrading and downgrading in global value chains: A framework for analysis. Economic Geography, 1-26.
Krauss, J. E., & Krishnan, A. (2022). Global decisions versus local realities: Sustainability standards, priorities and upgrading dynamics in agricultural global production networks. Global Networks, 22(1), 65-88.
Previous Episode
#10 Friendshoring: Rather a myth than reality
The new geopolitical rivalries and their impact on supply chains
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has shown us that the world is in a period of upheaval. Long-standing international laws – like respecting national borders – are being broken. Millions of Ukrainians are fleeing.
And as a result of Russia’s aggression, traditional relations are being questioned. Countries are reconsidering with whom and how much trade and interdependence they still want to allow. And a new term is making the rounds: Friendshoring – trading with friends only.
What it means, how to interpret it, and where supply chains are heading in times of geopolitical rivalry – that is today’s topic of discussion. Our guest is Holger Görg, Interim President of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and also Director of the Kiel Centre for Globalisation.
https://www.ifw-kiel.de/de/experten/ifw/holger-goerg/
https://www.idos-research.de/en/jb-sustainable-supply-chains/
Next Episode
#12 The role of market power in global value chains
And what happens to global value chains if competition is lacking?
In this episode will have a look at the role of market power in global value chains. Competition is a driver for innovation, it increases efficiency and leads to better outcomes for consumers. But what happens to global value chains if competition is lacking? What can be done on a regulatory level to prevent monopolies - or oligopolies? That’s what we want to discuss. Our guest in episode 12 is Pamela Mondliwaa. She is working at the state owned Industrial Development Corporation in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she is a industrial development planner.
This episode is the last in this series. We hope that we provided you with a wide range of topics on how supply chains effect the global south and all of us. Thank you all for listening.
Competition and Power in Global Value chains: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1024529420975154
The Political Economy of Structural Transformation: Political Settlements and Industrial Policy in South Africa: https://academic.oup.com/book/39853/chapter/340016803
Competition, Productive Capabilities and Structural Transformation in South Africa: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41287-020-00349-x
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