Paper short abstract:

East Africa became a major global player of the cut roses industry providing more than 2/3 of the Dutch auctions. This business connects suburban and rural locations with the global markets. This presentation focuses on this value chain and its impacts on local territories in East Africa.

Paper long abstract:

In the last 20 years East Africa became a major global player of the cut roses industry providing not less than 2/3 of the Dutch auctions with it products. This 1 billion E business connects very small suburban and rural locations with the global markets and contributes to the structural diversification of national economies. This presentation will focus on the actual fonctionning of this new (disrupting ?) value chain, at any scale trying to move away from a afrocentred approach of Africa. How does this GVC actually works ? Who are the major players of this business ? How do they impact on the local settings' development ? How do these products get over borders and penetrate the global markets ? How do they successfully compete with Latin American, Asian or European roses ?

We would like to use the cut rose GVC case study as a tool to revisit the paradigms of dependency and domination which are often considered hackneyed and now blurred in analyses of globalization. We would focus on the actual fonctionning of this new (connecting and disrupting ?) value chain, at any scale, trying as much as possible to move away from a afrocentred approach of Africa. Finally we would really like to discuss with other contributors in order to draw further future avenues for collective researches.