5 minute read
Quality, Quality, Compliance
Market access, value addition, marketing and branding significantly influence the potential profitability of agricultural producers. Cooperatives and other forms of coordinated commercial entities are established to achieve the necessary economies of scale for improved market reach. As a result, initiatives that emphasize product quality, quantity, and strategic market penetration have remained integral to FFD’s partnership approach with collaborators in the global South from its beginning.
Cooperatives are an important form of economic and social activity in rural development. It promotes financial inclusion, efficient use of resources, equality and sustainable development. Coordinated, commercial action through cooperatives has proven a powerful approach also in FFD projects.
- Mari Kokko, Managing Director of Pellervo Coop Center
The approaches chosen, depend on the market that farmers intend to pursue. Export markets often provide more lucrative opportunities, but they come with strict compliance requirements. Farmers can see them desirable, but the strict rules can lead to disappointments or even financial losses. Certification procedures are increasingly complicated since customers in developed countries want to achieve multiple objectives through a certification. A third-party verification audit costs often fall upon farmers. This needs to be considered, when assessing the feasibility of entering a certification system. For local and domestic markets, other types of quality procedures can be a solution. Peer-guaranteed systems (PGS) have been explored to give recognition by local buyers while keeping the costs for verification at a reasonable level.
Ensuring a consistent quantity can also become a challenge. Larger buyers normally demand a steady supply of a consistent quality for a longer period of time. This requires solid coordination by the cooperative or farmer-driven company. If middlemen offer good prices at a farm gate, it can lead to a situation when farmers sell their produce without respecting the joint commitment. Synchronizing production can also present a challenge. Crop calendar among farmers is a tool to avoid that all yield matures simultaneously, which can lead to surplus production in one week and inadequate supply the next one. This phenomenon needs particularly attention with perishable value chains, even if it can occur for any production group.
The projects in which FFD has been promoting certification or quality procedures vary from horticultural value chains to tree nurseries, honey production and forest management. Practically with all our partners, some of the activities are directed to quality and quantity, and how they can be improved, reported and verified.
Through the collaboration with FFD which focuses on quality systems, TAHA (Tanzania Horticultural Association) trained and licensed 15 Agronomists on GLOBALAG.A.P. standard. These agronomists can help farmers to apply practices which comply with the certification system. The farmers who have received the certification, get a better price in the market. More than 3.000 farmers were trained on GLOBALG.A.P. standard, out of which about 500 farmers received GLOBALG.A.P. certificates for various export value chains to the EU and US market.
The TAHA’s project coordinator stresses the importance of certificates for farmers. It is needed to ensure access to the EU market, but certified products also get a better price. Farmers certification impelled several buyers and exporters in the sector as a result of massive changes on the export volumes. In 2022, Tanzania exported 663 tons of vegetables worth USD 6.364.000, which was six times more than the year before.
The two cooperatives Lima Linda and Agrifruitnuts supported by FF-SPAK in Kenya, were founded since farmers wanted to participate in the lucrative international avocado trade. In 2022, the cooperatives already had more than 1.700 members. Integrating fruit trees into their farm is also beneficial from an ecological point of view. Farmers are trained in how to manage avocado trees. Nurseries to grow better quality seedlings allow farmers to have seedlings of better genetic material that are disease-resistant and produce avocadoes which the market desires. The cooperatives facilitate access to international markets and collective bargaining. Presently, the farmers sell their avocado produce at up to 75% more as compared to selling them individually at the local markets.
“Before the project was implemented, we believed culturally that the beekeeping was a work for men because it’s too hazardous for women. However, with the project we had an intersectional gender equality component, which taught us that it’s not good to apply something based on cultural belief. It’s necessary to make a diagnostic and research before making assumptions. Today, some of our best beekeepers are women, who are well-organized, their beehives are clean, their product has excellent quality and these women exhibit initiative for growth. Furthermore, they are teaching other women to be beekeepers”, says Ramón Ivan Beltrand, project coordinator and currently advisor for Comjeruma cooperative, Nicaragua.
