Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
have to comply with, or be more stringent than, the basic requirements of the
Codes. Business has been an active partner in this process, although many, partic-
ularly labour, feel that the final outcome and content of the Codes is slightly less
stringent than they should be.
The Code of Good Practice (and by necessity the emerging revised Tourism
Scorecard) pays considerable attention to supply chain issues. 'Procurement'
accounts for 20 per cent of a company's total score (25 per cent for small compa-
nies).
4
A high score on procurement is achieved by procuring from other
BBBEE-rated enterprises that score highly. A further 15 per cent of the score is
based on a company's performance on 'enterprise development' which involves
mentoring and supporting emerging business, which may of course be suppliers.
Thus from the South African perspective, these specific categories within the
BBBEE process provide considerable incentives to alter supply chain and enter-
prise development activities.
There are a number of South African companies that are known to have
already adopted initiatives to help small black local businesses get established as
regular suppliers of food or of services such as guiding, babysitting and laundry
(as outlined in Ashley et al, 2005). Umngazi River Bungalows (Eastern Cape)
buys all its fruit, vegetables and chicken from local farmers, while also recruiting
tourist guides from the local community. This was achieved by investing in
communication, training and practical help at the start (such as showing farmers
how to cultivate seedlings on site). Sun City has also assisted a local farmers'
group to establish a hydroponics project, to supply the resort with lettuce and
fresh herbs. In this example, donations for capital investment plus the guarantee
of a ready and massive market up the road enabled the local farmers to get estab-
lished. Stormsriver Adventures (SRA) assisted local women to establish an
independent catering company to supply all meals for guests. This involved inten-
sive input from SRA at first, in terms of training, mentoring, equipment, premises
and administration. Examples such as these illustrate that a tourism company,
large or small, can invest in stimulating small local suppliers, but do need up-front
commitment and investment.
Internationally, the main examples of pro-poor supply chain intervention are
on the agricultural side. In the Caribbean, tourism is often criticized for relying on
imports, even of fruits that are produced locally. Torres (2003) analysed several
initiatives that failed in Cancun, Mexico. A major problem was that initiatives
focused either on supply, by working with farmers, or on demand, by working
with chefs, but not on both together (Torres 2003, 2004). Chefs were suspicious
or ignorant of the potential of local farmers, and found it easier to buy bulk food
supplies from the capital city (Torres, 2004). Similar messages of the need to
combine demand, supply and market intervention come from more successful
examples supported by Oxfam in St Lucia (Wilde, 2007). The explicit strategy is
to work on enhancing the quality and quantity of farmers' supply, encourage
demand by engaging chefs and hotels in a 'buy local' programme, and to improve
how the market links producers and buyers, in terms of pricing, ordering, insur-
ance and transport. In these examples, there are some private companies, such as
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