Accessing international and regional markets: reaching regulatory compliance

For many developing and transitional countries the export of primary commodities and natural products represents a key economic sector offers income and enterprise opportunities to both small- and large-scale producers and processors and employment for rural and urban labour. In some countries, more than half of exports are produced by small-scale farmers. However, both the private sector and government regulatory bodies are increasing their requirements for adherence to standards and inspection systems covering food safety, product specification and quality. This will place considerable technical and financial demands on producer-country governments and their agricultural sector, particularly on small-scale producers and the service sectors that support them. Unless the impacts of both private sector and government regulations are addressed, the capacity of countries to secure and expand market opportunities into the future will be placed at risk.

Our programme

The Natural Resources undertakes a multidisciplinary systems approach to assess the impact of regulations and private-sector standards on trade competitiveness of developing and transition economies. In practice this means working closely with all players in the production, marketing and retail continuum, government bodies and supporting institutions providing training, extension, analytical and verification services, and those that control policy or interpretation of requirements.

Key aspects covered by our work include:

• assessment of the impact of regulations on supply chains and economic trade agreements, including value chain analysis and costs and benefits of standards compliance;
• analysis of international and national legislative and institutional regulatory frameworks and food control systems in support of trade;
• developing sustainable systems and institutional strengthening for competent authorities to promote cost-effective inspection and compliance with regulations;
• support to private sector, including SMEs, to achieve regulatory compliance;
• capacity building and sustainable training approaches for peer educators (e.g. farmer to farmer training programmes);
• pest risk analysis;
• development and transfer of crop management systems to meet regulatory needs.

A summary of some of NRI’s recent and on-going activities is given below:

• Assessment of how a general sustainable development test, which includes environmental, social and economic factors, could be integrated into existing Impact Assessment procedures for EC SPS regulations (DEFRA-DFID funded);
• Governance implications of private standards initiatives in agri-food chains (DFID/ESRC);
• Understanding and resolving the impact of EurepGAP on smallholders in Africa: development of cost-effective models for compliance, traceability and food safety assurance systems for smallholders in Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique (various donor-funded projects).  These activities have produced a wide range of achievements;
• Support for Kenyan smallholders on safe and effective use of crop protection products, including a practical understanding of EU requirements on maximum residue limits and pre-harvest intervals for horticultural crops (DFID-funded);
• Evaluation of the institutional and legal SPS framework on hygiene and safety of agricultural and natural resources for local and international market access in Tanzania (World Bank-funded) and Ethiopia (JICA-funded);
• Sustainability impact assessment of WTO Negotiations on the fisheries sector, evaluating economic, environmental, social and process/governance impacts on trade measures including tariffs, non-tariff measures (e.g. SPS and TBT), and subsidies (EC-funded);
• Development and delivery of awareness and training materials, such as “A Guide to Best Practice for Small Producers in Export Horticulture”, in various formats and languages to suit local requirements;
• Institutional development for export promotion in Mauritius by developing a national code of practice for horticultural production that reflects international requirements and creates potential for bench-marking of the Mauritian code against standards such as EurepGAP (EC-funded).
• Research on ethical trade including development of social and environmental standards, codes of practice and value chain analysis in Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Ghana (http://www.nri.org/NRET/) (DFID funded).

Selected Publications

Bennett, C. (2006). Feasibility of improving the value chain for Devil’s Claw (Harpagophytum spp.). Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, UK. 155 pp.

Graffham, A. and MacGregor, J. (2006) Impact of EurepGAP on small-scale growers of fruits and vegetables in Zambia. http://www.agrifoodstandards.net/

Graffham, A., Karehu, E., and MacGregor, J. (2006) Impact of EurepGAP on access to EU retails markets by small-scale growers of fruits and vegetables in Kenya.
http://www.agrifoodstandards.net/

Kleih, U. (2006) Perspectives on Technical Barriers to Trade, Subsidies, and Barriers to Investment; In: Fishing for Coherence – The Development Dimension; Proceedings of the Workshop on Policy Coherence for Development in Fisheries; 24-25 April 2006; pp167-175; Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Paris. ISBN 92-64-02529-4.

Orchard, J., Black, R., Abdallah, R., Muangirwa, C. and Nicolaides, L. (2006). Establishment of an Institutional and Legal Framework on Hygiene and Safety of Agricultural and Natural Resources Products.  Report for the Government of Tanzania. Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, UK. 246 pp.

NRI (2003) Smallholders in Export Horticulture: A Guide to Good Practice. CD-Rom 2003. ISBN 0 85954 547 4.

Tallontire, A., Dolan, C., Smith, S. and Barrientos, S. (2005) Reaching the Marginalised? Gender, Value Chains and Ethical Trade in African Horticulture, Development in Practice 15 (3 and 4).

Tallontire, A. (2006) The Origins of Alternative Trade and Fairtrade - Moving into the mainstream, in Barrientos, S. and Dolan, C. (eds) Ethical Sourcing in the Global Food Chain: Challenges and Opportunities, London: Earthscan.