Requalifying markets of basic food commodities? An examination of the Round Table on Responsible Soy's implementation in Córdoba, Argentina

Abstract

The Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS) is an international multi-stakeholder initiative whose certification scheme seeks to promote more economically, socially and environmentally sustainable practices in the soy sector. This paper offers an in-depth case study of Argentina's soy producing province of Córdoba in order examine RTRS′ attempt to requalify soy, a basic food commodity for which discussions around quality have traditionally tended to be marginal. Guided by a regulationist analytical framework, the empirical analysis shows that RTRS aims at producing some modest transformations in the production practices of the soy sector. However, due to this initiative's unsuccessful attempt to guarantee demand and significant price premiums for producers, the possibility of achieving such modest transformations becomes compromised. As a consequence, the case of RTRS makes visible some of the challenges and difficulties that emerge when markets of basic food commodities attempt to adopt the logic of quality markets.