Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
under GLOBALG.A.P and the ETI base code (see Blowfield and Dolan, 2008). At the
time of data collection, some of these producers were also exploring potential ac-
smallholder organic farmers certified by international organic certifiers (including
IMO and KRAV) and through both international and domestic (Ugo-Cert) inspectors.
Many of these farmers were members of the Katuulo Organic Pineapple Cooperative
Society (KOPCS), located in the Kyazanga Sub County, south west of Kampala. In-
terviews were also conducted with representatives from Amfri Farms (the horticul-
tural export company), as well as NGO representatives in Uganda. ualitative data
were analysed via thematic coding.
In the sections that follow, we focus on two examples where farmer or industry
organizations in Kenya and Uganda have been able to renegotiate South-North trade
relations, through (1) the process of developing Kenya-GAP as an equivalent volun-
tary standard to GLOBALG.A.P, and (2) the formation of Ugo-Cert for the provision
of local organic certification in Uganda.
Ethical trade in Kenya: the case of Kenya-GAP
For Kenyan horticultural producers, accreditation to GLOBALG.A.P (previously
while voluntary, these are commonly perceived as basic requirements for African
suppliers (see Borot de Batisti
et al
., 2009). EurepGAP emerged in the mid-1990s
as a way for supermarkets to blend environmental sustainability and food safety
into standards to assure increasingly scrutinising consumers of the credibility of
suppliers' good agricultural practices (GAP). The certificate covers the process from
farm inputs suh as feed or seedlings, through all the farming activities until the
product leaves the farm, and includes ethical, social, environmental and labour-re-
on labour issues (health and safety, employment-related rights), and complements
the GLOBALG.A.P approah to good agricultural practice.
As one example of an ethical trade standard, GLOBALG.A.P has been described
as 'a “mega-audit” of European supermarket supply hains' (Campbell and Le Heron,
2007, p132). The private sector body aims to establish one standard for good agricul-
tural practice with diferent product applications iting the whole of global agricul-
ture - currently, there are more than 100 independent and accredited GLOBALG.A.P
certification bodies in more than 80 countries worldwide; in Kenya, there are 386
