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Paper short abstract:

This paper seeks to offer the panel an assessment of the drivers and barriers that are shaping the integration of dairy farmers into the value chain in a region of the Colombian Andes.

Paper long abstract:

Dairy production is one of the most important activities for Colombia’s agrarian economy. However, the reduction of milk consumption in Colombia and the influx of dairy products, mostly imported from the United States and the European Union, have led to an increase in milk powder inventories. This has implied the reduction of payments and the complete halt of milk collection from many dairy farmers by processors who claim that the quality of their milk does not meet the required standards. The agrifood value chains framework (Gereffi et al., 2010) has been adopted in this research, which traditionally focused on how firms and farmers from the Global South export products to the Global North. However, there is little understanding about how farmers from countries like Colombia are integrated into national agrichains in a context where they compete with local more established/bigger farmers and with imports from the Global North. This study has identified that the conditions imposed by the dairy industry, combined with high production costs, have been detrimental to most farmers, pushing many small-scale farmers to seek alternatives to dairy production or to find informal markets for their milk through middlemen to ensure their livelihoods. Conversely, a minority of dairy farmers with specialised knowledge and sufficient capital to lease productive lands are concentrating milk production and driving integration in the dairy value chain. The study employs a case study of a region in the Colombian Andes, combining interviews, focus group discussions, field observations, farmer surveys and document analysis.