Endnotes

¹One of the world’s most prominent medical associations warned of the dire human health consequences of the increasing resistance to antibiotics in the US where only 12 percent of all antibiotics are used for humans and the remaining 88 percent are routinely fed in intensive livestock operations (New England Journal of Medicine, 1999). That journal has also noted that a likely result is that antibiotic-resistant infections had increased 800 percent between 1992 and 1997. Some countries have banned the routine prophylactic use on livestock, and Denmark, for example, saw its antibiotic resistance drop from 82 percent to 12 percent (Robbins, 2003).

²For example, outbreaks of avian influenza in Southeast Asia during 2004 and 2005 halted the production and trade in poultry products, affected suppliers of feed and other inputs, severely reduced tourism, and seriously affected other parts of the economy, not least of all the deaths of some 204 people up to November 2007. Estimates of the economic loss are around 1.5 percent of the GDP for some of those affected countries.

³Cited in “China inching up world exporter list.” Accessed September 2007: http://www.freshinfo.com/index.php?s=n&ss=nd&sid=40288&s_txt=Patrick+Vizzone+China&s_date=0&ms=7.5261569023132&offset=

⁴The Netherlands figure is skewed by considerable trans-shipments through its ports, and Spain’s is heavily dependent on a few citrus crops.

⁵As an example, in Europe while there are around 3.2 million farmers and 160 million consumers, there are in fact only 600 supermarket companies and 100 wholesale distributors supplying the majority of the markets (Grievink, 2003). While most of the major supermarket chains have their own integrated distributor systems, the smaller chains and independents rely on outsourcing their purchasing and distribution systems to independent wholesalers. In another example from Australia, three supermarkets (Woolworths, Coles, and Franklins) control nearly 80 of the grocery sales, and three wholesalers (Davids, Australian Independent Wholesalers, and Foodland Associated Limited) supply all retailers (COA, 1999). AIW, is a subsidiary of Woolworths. The concentration of buying power in a few companies means that it is very difficult for smallholder farmers from developing countries to gain access to such high-value markets.

⁶The exporter only contracts for baby corn, a product that is less likely to result in pesticide residues.

⁷In Viet Nam, for example, the Domestic Trade Department of Hanoi views some street vendors as an undesirable influx of the rural and peri-urban poor coming into the city on a daily basis to sell products on the street, causing congestion, unsightliness, and a waste management problem.

⁸The increasing use of standards and contract systems in the global retailing industry has the potential to restrict access of smallholder producers to these higher-valued chains. In Bangladesh, as an example, Agora Supermarkets only had two branches in 2004. In order to obtain fresh produce they had contracting relationships with thousands of smallholder vegetable growers. They had planned to open two additional branches in 2005, and then to stop purchasing much of their food locally (within Bangladesh) and instead source everything from overseas. With four branches they believed they would then have enough volume of sales to enable them to order by the container load directly from Singapore (sourced from Australia, New Zealand, and the US). Ultimately, it was easier to deal with one freight forwarder in Singapore than thousands of farmers (Purcell and Hassanullah, 2004).

⁹In some countries organic standards have become public standards by virtue of laws that regulate their application.

¹⁰Calculation based on historic growth data reported by IFOAM and Organic Monitor

¹¹Based on FLO data, November 2007.

¹²Cambodia has adopted all of the Codex standards—at least on paper. Viet Nam had adopted about 60% of Codex standards relating to food and foodstuffs as of 2005 and planned to adopt all remaining ones (MOT and EU, 2005).

¹³ISO 22000 is an auditable standard and aligned with Codex’s HACCP but goes farther with requirements for food safety management systems and specific areas such as strengthening prerequisite programs and transforming the recommendations into requirements. ISO 22000 is coming into use, and the US Seafood Inspection Program (National Marine Fisheries Service) will soon start to audit for compliance with both ISO 9001 and ISO 22000.

¹⁴Similarly, ISO 61 is the recognized guideline for accreditation bodies and is often the benchmark for national rulings on this (e.g., The European EN 45010). ISO 62 covers quality system certifiers.

¹⁵They specifically address the following topics: site selection; adjacent land use; water; fertilizers; herbicides/pesticides; hygiene; field, facility, and worker hygiene; product cooling; and transportation.

¹⁶Michael Porter’s cluster theory is useful for understanding the nature of complementary and sometimes competitive enterprises grouping in a region for mutual benefit. See, for example, Porter (1980).

¹⁷http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/26/spinach.fears.ap/index.html

¹⁸Low External Input Sustainable Agriculture

¹⁹www.iisd.org/standards/cosa.asp

²⁰Ulrich Hoffmann, Chief, UNCTAD Trade and Sustainable Development Section, address to plenary conference on Trade and Environment Dimensions in the Food and Food Processing Industries in Asia and the Pacific (16-18 October 2006).

²¹Trade associations also create standards in their role as proxies for private firms.

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Comment(s)

There are [2] comment(s) for this entry. Post a comment.

1. Prof. J. George
   (posted 06 July 2008 / 07:56:18 PM)
   
   The authors, Giovannucci and Pursell needs to be complimented on this publication for putting together a business perspective to the application of standards in the food trade.
   
   The perspective of the book however could have been broadened if the production landscape in the region was brought to play a dominant role. The price discovery advantages are certainly not available to the producers. The cost burden, however, is surely an additionality for the producer in more than one ways. For instance, the AGORA experience in Bangladesh is being experienced in all the member countries in the region. This burden is magnified when the state governments either in collusion or in default setting withdraws due to the fiscal conditionalities.
   
   The publication could have immensely benefitted from a professional copyediting and/or critical peer review. But it is a useful addition to the discipline of food safety regulation.
2. Dr T. Tappani
   (posted 03 June 2008 / 05:47:56 AM)
   
   This ADBI paper: "Standards and Agricultural Trade in Asia" is quite a practical and useful look at the topic of trade and development. The authors, Giovannucci and Pursell, clearly have a sharp eye for the needs of business and the realities of farmers (mostly small in the region) and combine these to offer some practical solutions that the Asian Development Bank and governments would be wise to consider in their work.