Agro-commodity chains: An introduction

This article combines the GCC and Convention Theory frameworks to compare the value chains for agro-commodities before and after the decade 1980-90. Crudely, this period was a watershed between producer-driven and buyer-driven forms of organisation. Subsequently, two types of buyer-driven chain have become differentiated: one with low entry barriers that is experiencing downgrading, and one with high entry barriers that is experiencing upgrading. A major policy challenge is to find institutional means of lowering the entry barriers to the second kind of chain, while preserving the upgrading trajectory. This article applies value-chain analysis to an agricultural 'commodity' which is in the process of significant change in final product markets. By focusing on the capacity of value-chain analysis to map input-output relations, and by identifying power asymmetries along the chain, it is possible to analyse the factors explaining inter-country distributional outcomes in this sector. A major conclusion is that we are witnessing a simultaneous process of power concentration in importing countries and power deconcentration in producing countries. It is hypothesised that similar trends can be observed in other agricultural-based value chains.