A Comparative Analysis of the Social Performance of Global and Local Berry Supply Chains

Mikelis Grivins,Bojan Ristic,Talis Tisenkopfs,Zaklina Stojanovic

doi:10.3390/su8060532

Abstract

The goal of this paper is twofold: to comparatively analyze the social performance of global and local berry supply chains and to explore the ways in which the social dimension is embedded in the overall performance of food supply chains. To achieve this goal, the social performance of five global and local food supply chains in two countries are analyzed: wild blueberry supply chains in Latvia and cultivated raspberry supply chains in Serbia. The study addresses two research questions: (1) What is the social performance of the local and global supply chains? (2) How can references to context help improve understanding of the social dimension and social performance of food supply chains? To answer these questions, two interlinked thematic sets of indicators (attributes) are used—one describing labor relations and the other describing power relations. These lists are then contextualized by examining the micro-stories of the actors involved in these supply chains. An analysis of the chosen attributes reveals that global chains perform better than local chains. However, a context-sensitive analysis from the perspective of embedded markets and communities suggests that the social performance of food chains is highly context-dependent, relational, and affected by actors’ abilities to negotiate values, norms, and the rules embedded within these chains, both global and local. The results illustrate that the empowerment of the chains’ weakest actors can lead to a redefining of the meanings that performance assessments rely on.

Highlights

Studies related to agro-food systems ever more frequently raise questions as to how sustainable current food supply chains are
A critical assessment of social performance is likely to bring significant benefits: investigations into the social aspects of food systems are permeated with relativity, and this quality can be helpful in shedding light on ways to negotiate and align the plural meanings of food chain dimensions and make the assessment context-sensitive
This paper has analyzed the social performance of five food supply chains in two countries

Summary

Introduction

Studies related to agro-food systems ever more frequently raise questions as to how sustainable current food supply chains are. These same studies underline the fact that a diversity of knowledge is needed to make a comprehensive performance evaluation in order to assess the sustainability of products reaching our tables [1,2]. The complexity of the processes to be assessed is most evident when one considers the social pillar (dimension) in order to analyze the sustainability of food systems [2] This is probably one of the reasons why social aspects have often been overlooked in food chain performance assessment. Introducing social aspects into a food system sustainability assessment involves incorporating those actors who can purposefully make improvements to the food system into the analysis: farmers, food companies, employers, workers, retailers, local communities, policy makers, and consumers

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