7
The case for farmers’ organizations
the global food industry, has experienced increased market concentration, meaning that
there is an increasingly smaller number of companies operating at any particular stage
of the market chain, enabling them to influence prices and giving them considerable
market power, weakening the position of farmers (Penrose-Buckley, 2007). Thus, it
is no longer enough for aquaculture farmers to focus solely on increasing production
efficiency, but also on marketing and integrating successfully into the production
chain, producing
high-quality and safe products, accessing the required production
inputs at affordable costs, and engaging in on-farm management
practices that are
highly efficient and sustainable, taking account of the surrounding environment and
social issues related to production (Phillips
et al.
, 2007).
Small farmers also face challenges because of the changing preferences of consumers
in developed (and increasingly in developing) countries for safer, healthier, better
quality food that has been produced in environmentally sustainable and ethical ways.
This has led to fast growth in demand for speciality or “niche” products that have special
characteristics based on their quality and farming practice, origin, or how the product
or production process benefits producers and/or the environment (Penrose-Buckley,
2007). This has been accompanied by a shift from public to increasingly strict private
food standards established by groups of retailers, individual supermarket chains and
other large companies in order to compete with others and satisfy consumer demands.
These requirements increasingly focus on the process of production rather than just the
end product, which has led to increased emphasis on traceability (to identify exactly
where a product has come from, all the way down the market chain).
Aside from meeting the standards
of individual companies, farmers are also
increasingly required to meet collective certification standards to show buyers and
consumers
that certain quality, safety, environmental and/or ethical standards have
been met
3
(Penrose-Buckley, 2007). These requirements are being driven, to a certain
extent, by public concern over the safety and quality of aquaculture products along
with the social and environmental impact of aquaculture production. Growing
customer awareness of these impacts has led to the development
of several aquaculture
certification schemes such as GLOBALGAP
4
and the Aquaculture Certification
Council (ACC), with the purpose of securing the long-term development of the sector
(Joker and Christensen, 2009). There are currently 30 certification schemes that could be
relevant to aquaculture, covering environmental sustainability (promoted by retailers,
aquaculture industry, governments and NGOs), organic production, fair- trade, animal
welfare and “free range” and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
There are at least eight key international agreements and at least another nine initiatives
of relevance (Corsin, 2007). The increased demand for meeting food safety standards,
traceability, certification and other non-tariff requirements is driving risks and costs
down the market chain to the farmer.
For instance, certification against specific
standards requires considerable resources to invest in improved production processes,
monitoring systems and the cost of certification itself. Thus, the rise of these standards
favours medium- to large-scale, capital-intensive operations that can afford such extra
costs and excludes landless fish workers and small-scale fish farmers who have limited
resources and capacity to meet these requirements.
The establishment, maintenance and enforcement
of appropriate legal, regulatory
and administrative frameworks in developing countries (where the majority of
3
Most certification schemes are run by independent organizations that audit
producers or production
processes and provide a certificate to certify specific standards have been met.
4
GGLOBALGAP was formerly known as EUREPGAP. It is a private-sector body that sets voluntary
standards for the certification of agricultural products around the globe. The aim is to establish one
standard for good agricultural practice (GAP) with different product applications capable of fitting to
the whole of global agriculture. The aquaculture products currently covered include shrimp, salmonoids,
tilapia and
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