Paper long abstract:

Private voluntary standards harbour potential to negatively affect exports from developing countries and hence directly impact on poverty. This paper reports on research on the fresh produce trade linking UK consumers and small-scale producers in East and Southern Africa, and specifically on the range of financial and non-financial costs and benefits that smallholders face in complying with these standards. Analysis will cover smallholders still participating in supply chains to the UK supermarkets and those who have "dropped out" from these chains and now cater to expanding regional and international markets that do not (yet) require such stringent standards - such as UK wholesale and non-UK EU supermarkets. The paper will address the following issues: will the trend towards higher standards mean that smallholders will ultimately disappear from the UK and EU consumers' footprint? what best-practice procurement models exist that ensure the role of smallholders? how can donor assistance be directed to obtain the greatest poverty reduction impact?