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30 years CiTiP, Leuven, October 4th 2019
Miet Maertens
Division of Bioeconomics, KU Leuven
Private Food Standards and the
Case of ‘Fair’ Coffee
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Source: International Trade Center (2017)
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Private food standards
0 1 2 3 4 5
Coffee
Cocoa
Tea
Bananas
million ha
Fairtrade
4C
Organic
Utz
Rainforest Alliance
GlobalGAP
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Spread of private food standards
Improved sustainability in global food systems
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• Easing consumers’ conscience / satisfying consumer demand for
more
ethically and environmentally friendly produced food
• Fulfilling companies’ sustainable sourcing strategies and
corporate
responsibility strategies
• Diverting donor money to certification programs / extracting
rents from global
food supply chains
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Impact of private food standards?
Do private food standards actually have an impact
on socio-economic and environment sustainability?
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• What type of standards: How do different standards compare in
their impact? Does double / triple / multiple certification make
sense?
• What type of effects: What are the sustainability effects of
standards? Are there trade-offs between socio-economic and
environmental effects?
• Where: Where do specific standards have the largest impact?
How does the impact compares in different countries?
• How: What are the channels of effects? How does the design of
standards matter?
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Impact of private food standards?
Some contributions from a focus on different coffee
standards in two countries.
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Insights from 2 case-studies
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5 most important
coffee standards
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Coffee standards
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Ethiopia Uganda
425 farmer: economic survey data → 270 certified & 155
non-certified
600 farmers: economic survey data→ 300 certified & 300
non-certified
70 coffee plots: ecological field data→ 32 certified & 38
non-certified
74 coffee plots: ecological field data → 37 certified & 37
non-certified
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Coffee standards
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Economic effects - Uganda
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Economic effects - Uganda
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FT certified Org certified RA certified
OLS / logit PSM OLS / logit PSM OLS / logit PSM
Coffee Yield -10.09 -57.31 -400.24*** -686.91*** -49.76
-69.05
(120.72) (127.12) (147.16) (200.06) (125.41) (171.00)
Coffee Income 1.00*** 1.11* -1.19*** -1.37** 2.04*** 3.04***
(0.38) (0.61) (0.44) (0.64) (0.45) (0.65)
Household income -0.16 -0.17 -0.52* -0.08 1.20*** 1.74***
(0.31) (0.37) (0.29) (0.49) (0.21) (0.55)
Poverty 0.10 0.09 0.10 0.10 -0.30*** -0.25***
(0.07) (0.08) (0.07) (0.08) (0.06) (0.08)
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Economic effects - Ethiopia
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Socio-economic effects (both countries)
FT Certified RA Certified
IV REG PSM IV REG PSM
primary school enrolment - girls 0.533 * 0.041 ** -0.145
-0.014
primary school enrolment - boys 0.768 *** 0.044 * 0.039
0.009
Secondary school enrolment - girls 0.738 *** 0.162 *** -0.179
-0.025
Secondary school enrolment - boys 0.814 *** 0.140 *** -0.126
-0.025
Primary schooling efficiency - girls 0.097 *** 0.115 *** 0.006
0.014
Primary schooling efficiency - boys 0.162 *** 0.143 *** 0.058
0.047
Secondary schooling efficiency - girls 0.148 *** 0.136 ***
-0.080 -0.033
Secondary schooling efficiency - boys 0.103 *** 0.076 ** -0.023
-0.008
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FT-Org has negative yield effects, resulting in adverse income
and
poverty effects
RA-Utz-4C has positive yield effects, resulting in beneficial
income
and poverty effects
FT-Org has positive effects on child schooling, RA-Utz-4C does
not
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Economic effects – summary
FT has small positive effect on income, not on poverty
Org has negative effect on yield and income
RA has beneficial income and poverty effects, through prices
FT has positive effects on child schooling, RA does
notEthiopia
Uganda
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Economic effects – Fairtrade
Source: International Trade centre, 2017
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
production volume
volume sold
-
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Ecological effects - Uganda
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Ecological effects - Uganda
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Agronomic effects - Uganda
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Agronomic effects - Uganda
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Negative yield effects
Adverse income and poverty effects
Positive effects on carbon storage
Positive effects on tree and ant diversity
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Ecological & economic effects – summary
Positive yield effects
Beneficial income and poverty effects
Few effects on carbon storage & tree diversity
Negative effects on ant diversity
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Sustainability trade-offs - Uganda
Total sample Non-certified Certified
Total Carbon (Mg ha-1 ) -0.100 -0.190 ** -0.025
Soil Organic Carbon (Mg ha-1 ) -0.068 -0.104 -0.041
Tree Biomass Carbon (Mg ha-1) -0.141 ** -0.240 *** -0.111
Tree Basal Area (m2 ha-1) -0.141 ** -0.226 *** -0.108
Tree Diversity (D') -0.064 -0.095 -0.033
Ants Abundance -0.221 *** -0.322 *** -0.155
Spiders Abundance -0.096 -0.296 *** 0.032
Rove Beetles Abundance -0.111 -0.223 ** -0.050
Spiders Diversity (D') 0.031 0.022 0.088
Beetles Diversity (D') 0.045 0.056 0.045
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Voluntary sustainability standards do not always walk the talk •
Impact not always in line with expectations and promises
• Impact depends on the context & country
• Impact depends on the context & year of observation
• No standard improves all three dimensions of
sustainability
• No standard eliminates sustainability trade-offs but some
reduce them
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Some conclusions
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Attention needed to the design of standards
• Multiple certification can be counterproductive
• Focus on reducing / eliminating sustainability trade-offs
within a standard
• Wide spread can be counterproductive
• Attention to improving yields and better prices
Further research attention needed
• Comparative cases across countries, sectors and VSS
• On-farm and off-farm effects
• Channels of effects
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Some conclusions
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Research output
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Faculteit Bio-ingenieurswetenschappen24
Research output
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Faculteit Bio-ingenieurswetenschappen25
Research output
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Faculteit Bio-ingenieurswetenschappen26
Research output
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Faculteit Bio-ingenieurswetenschappen27
Research output
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Thanks
Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences
Royal Museum for Central Africa
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences
Busitema University & Jimma University
Teopista AKOYI, Wouter DECONINCK, Rudy JOCQUE, Fikadu
MITIKU, Bart MUYS, Koen VANDERHAEGEN, Bruno VERBIST
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