Linking agri-food firms to farmers

Globalization has meant that agribusiness as with other forms of trade, is no longer confined to local geographical locations but extends beyond national and regional boundaries.  These market forces have shifted the focus from organisations to agricultural supply chains as the means by which the diverse consumer demands can be met. The shape and nature of these supply chains is further influenced by regulatory frameworks that impose certain conditions on the supply chains, as well as advancements in technology and communications that dictate the production, processing, trade and distribution of agricultural products. 

In response to this, Standards have emerged to address a wide range of issues, from quality assurance, food safety, working conditions, to various ethical, environmental and social concerns. In particular, voluntary (or private) standards have in the past years experienced phenomenal growth. The increase in demand for agricultural products such as fresh produce has in these years necessitated a different approach by European supermarkets and retailers of these products so as to guarantee their competitiveness in the market. New requirements of ensuring continuous supply of products and availability of different forms of these products have been the main drivers for these standards. In addition, recent concerns that seek to address a wide range of sustainability issues have seen businesses and consumers embracing ‘responsible buying’.

Many African countries are players in the global agribusiness arena, exporting commodities like tea, coffee, cocoa, fresh produce and flowers.  In Kenya, horticulture is the second foreign exchange earner whose main market is the European Union where supermarkets comprise the main retailer outlet for fresh fruits and vegetables. This in effect means that exporters are compelled to implement and comply with strict supermarket regulations and codes in order to have market access.

To ensure the conformity of food and agricultural products and practices to such private standards, supermarkets have increasingly begun to demand the use of third party certification. It is a regulatory mechanism by which consistency in food safety and quality can be assured and thus safeguard the reputation and brands of the standard owners. Whereas compliance of these standards is not a legal requirement, the double and triple growth of agribusiness under these standards (compared to that of traditional markets) is evidence that non-compliance will mean exclusion by suppliers from these markets.

It is in this context that AfriCert operates. As a certification body we offer third party guarantee as far as compliance to these standards is concerned. We have worked in over 15 countries in Africa, ensuring that products like fresh fruits and vegetables, cut flowers, tea, coffee, cotton, cocoa and palm oil meet the requirements of inspection and auditing standards such as GlobalG.A.P, UTZ Certified, 4C- (Common Code for the Coffee Community), SAN/RA(Sustainable Agriculture Network/Rainforest Alliance), ETP( Ethical Tea Partnership), LEAF Marque, CMiA (Cotton Made in Africa) and BRC. Our work has seen us undertake a key role in linking the local farmer with the international market through production and supply of quality and safe food.

Whereas it can be observed that the benefits of this process accrue on the retailers, we have witnessed the positive effects associated with third party certification especially to the small farmer.  Efforts to comply with these standards has seen the improvement of management and monitoring systems, increase in agricultural productivity, adoption of good farming practices, better management of resources and improved livelihoods. This is quite significant as the development of agriculture in Africa is seen as one of the solutions to the global challenge of food security. As more land will be required for agriculture it is important that farmers embrace these good practices to guarantee a sustainable supply of food to the increasing world population.

There has also been an element of capacity building whereby we have demystified the standard language to enable the farmers have a better understanding of what is required of them. In most of the countries we operate, there is a general lack of information and farmer education on these standards and certification requirements.  We have tried to bridge this gap by decoding these standards and their requirements which has also led to a smoother certification process.  Farmers now possess a greater appreciation of the standards and their benefits and no longer see themselves in isolation but as key stakeholders on a regional, national and global scale.  Over and above this, our participation in programs such as the USAID Horticulture program in Kenya and Ghana has enabled us to provide donor capacity building backstopping on emerging issues in the GLOBALG.A.P standard in the Fresh Produce sector. Through various forums and meetings we have advocated for inclusiveness of African producers’ representation at the development phases of private standards or merging of small holder’s operations within the larger requirement of these standards so as to appreciate local structures and systems first, before loading it on these small producers with double and triple compliance checks.

Despite being a local company, the direct costs of certification still remain out of reach for the small farmer especially in light of the developing economies they exist in. In addition to financial constraints, challenges to compliance still exist. The array of private standards with no harmonization proves to be burdensome to farmers. Also, the lack of enforcement to the already poor food safety laws in these countries which, are not updated to take into account the ever changing EU threshold limits, do little to encourage the sustenance of these highly stringent  requirements by the farmers. There is still a lack of engagement of local interpretation for these global requirements and investment in development of local solutions e.g housing, family labour, land tenure systems, risk assessment, vis a vis size of small holder operations and infrastructures. These challenges threaten to diminish returns and could mean the halting of production of commodities for export.

So as to facilitate the growth of agribusiness especially where product and process certification is concerned, it is important that existing opportunities be exploited and challenges be addressed to ensure the survival and growth of agrifood value chains as well as relevance of third party certification on these chains. In our view, there needs to be investment of infrastructure along the whole value chain,  availability of affordable private or public laboratories as these are almost non-existent yet provide data analysis for produce, engagement by standard owners and value chain actors to foster a sustainable ownership of VSS by producers and other downstream players, economic incentives to encourage adoption of standards, sound and scientific basis for better implementation of standards and finally review and harmonization of local regulatory regimes with those of private standards.

The value and benefits of third party certification needs to be seen as more than requirements by retailers and export markets as a basis for market access but as the drivers for sustainable production, environmental and ecosystem conservation in the producer countries as well as a mechanism for risk management for producers and businesses, improvement of inefficiencies in the value chain as well as economic empowerment and improvement of livelihoods for the producers.