Agro-commodity chains, market power and territory: re-regulating South African citrus exports in the 1990s

Abstract

Using the filiere or agro-commodity chain framework, this paper examines the organisation and restructuring of South African citrus exports. It argues that the single desk exporter of South African citrus, Outspan International, has exercised considerable market power over citrus production through state regulations and the control of infrastructure for exports. This power has provided the foundation on which it has built a global market strategy and points to the important link between Outspan’s local market power and its global market strategies. A second theme in the paper is the territorial configuration associated with the filiere which has both territorialised and deterritorialised citrus production in South Africa. The re-regulation of the citrus filiere in the 1990s will force Outspan to restructure its global strategy. A new regulatory environment which opens the way for the fragmentation of the citrus filiere is also likely to usher in a new territorial configuration of citrus production.