Global Food Value Chains Research Articles

Global food value chains and obesity in low- and middle-income countries

Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are experiencing disproportional increases in overweight or obesity rates. Parallel to this trend, many LMICs are witnessing significant growth in their participation in global food value chains (GFVCs). This paper aims to shed light on the public health implications of increasing participation in GFVCs. Leveraging macro- and micro-level data spanning 25 years, we study the relationship between countries’ participation in GFVCs and women’s overweight or obesity rates. We explore heterogeneous implications by disaggregating countries’ participation into backward and forward linkages in GFVCs, as well as across rural and urban areas. We find that temporal increases in countries’ participation in GFVCs are significantly associated with increasing overweight or obesity rates, primarily when countries participate in backward linkages and for urban populations. Participation in GFVCs involving forward linkages appears to have negligible implications, and the relationship between participation in GFVCs and obesity disappears for rural women. Furthermore, we find that an increase in countries’ participation in GFVCs is associated with an increase in consumption of energy-dense foods such as sugar, commonly linked with obesity. Our findings have important implications for informing public policies aimed at addressing the increasing obesity rates and associated economic and health burdens in LMICs.

Global Food Value Chains and Obesity in Low-and Middle-Income Countries

Global Food Value Chains and Obesity in Low-and Middle-Income Countries

Smallholder farmer resilience to extreme weather events in a global food value chain

Extreme weather events have severe impacts on food systems, especially for smallholders in global food value chains (GFVCs). There is an urgent need to understand (a) how climate shocks manifest in food systems, and (b) what strategies can enhance food system resilience. Integrating satellite, household and trade data, we investigate the cascading impacts after two consecutive hurricanes on smallholder banana farmers in Dominican Republic, and determinants of their recovery. We found that farmers experienced an ‘all-or-nothing’ pattern of damage, where 75% of flooded farmers lost > 90% of production. Recovery of regional production indicators took ca. 450 days. However, farm-level recovery times were highly variable, with both topographic and human capital factors determining recovery. Utilising this case study, we show that engaging in a GFVC impeded recovery via ‘double exposure’ of production loss and losing market access. Our results suggest that strategies to enhance resilience, with a particular focus on recovery, in GFVCs should promote trader loyalty, facilitate basin-scale collaboration and expand risk-targeted training.

Forecasting disruptions in global food value chains to tackle food insecurity: The role of AI and big data analytics – A bibliometric and scientometric analysis

Globalization and interconnected supply chains have led to complex disruptions in global value chains, caused by various factors such as natural disasters, climate events, geopolitical conflicts, and economic crises. Recent breakthroughs in AI, machine learning, blockchain, and big data analytics offer new possibilities for forecasting and managing these disruptions effectively. This study examines the role of AI in forecasting and managing disruptions within global value chain to tackle food insecurity. We conducted a bibliometric and scientometric analysis using comprehensive data from Scopus and Web of Science to explore emerging research trends, influential publications, leading institutions, collaborations, themes, policy implications, and future research avenues. The research revealed an average yearly growth rate of 13.78 % in publications from 1973 to 2022. China, the United Kingdom, and the United States lead in AI applications to address supply chain disruptions, particularly concerning food insecurity. Frequently used keywords include "food security," "supply chain management," "agriculture," "modelling," "climate change," and "COVID-19." Themes identified focus on the impact of COVID-19 on food supply chains, achieving food security amidst climate change, leveraging predictive models in agriculture, and assessing the impact of disruptions on food price volatility and global supply chain risk assessment approaches. The insights gained from this research offer valuable guidance for policymakers and researchers to enhance food security. The identified themes provide direction for future research efforts in advancing food security amidst uncertainties and disruptions in global value chains.

The true cost of food waste: Tackling the managerial challenges of the food supply chain

BackgroundIncreasing transparency and accountability in the current global food value chain is one of the biggest debates in food policy. Food waste generation and management is a global challenge that requires urgent prevention measures. Efforts are also required to develop significant conceptual frameworks and theoretical developments with a clear focus on a wide range of practical applications. The true cost paradigm identifies new research venues for the cross-disciplinary theme of waste in the food value chain. Scope and approachThis commentary examines True Cost Accounting (TCA) as a potential theoretical and methodological framework to evaluate the impact of food waste in relationship to cost-externalizing and the hidden costs of food systems. Key Findings and ConclusionsThe article opens up a discussion on true cost theory and its application to food waste. Additionally, it provides directions for future research in four specific areas: the broad food value chain, social policy, social sustainability aspects, and final consumers.

Link between structural risk factors for adverse impacts of COVID-19 and food insecurity in developed and developing countries

COVID-19 has had serious consequences for world food security; lockdowns and social distancing have led to changes in global food value chains, primarily affecting the poorest of the planet. The aim of this research is to analyse the relationship between food insecurity and the structural risk factors for adverse impacts of COVID-19. To that end, 12 contingency tables are constructed to identify the association between the pillars of the food insecurity index and the INFORM COVID-19 Risk Index. We use the Gamma coefficient as a measure of association. In addition, this paper proposes a synthetic index produced by applying the TOPSIS method, using the pillars of the two aforementioned indices (criteria) to establish a ranking of 112 countries (alternatives) ordered from highest to lowest risk faced in the key year of the pandemic, 2020. The results show that the two problems are connected, indicating to international organizations that countries with worse food insecurity will suffer more serious consequences from extreme situations such as the one experienced during the pandemic. The ranking established directs international organizations' attention to countries such as Haiti, Zambia and Burundi, highlighting their greater need for an injection of financial aid than other emerging economies. Conversely, Switzerland is the country with the lowest combined risk.

Agriculture, food and global value chains: issues, methods and challenges

Agriculture, food and global value chains: issues, methods and challenges

Partnerships Blending Institutional Logics for Inclusive Global and Regional Food Value Chains in Ghana; with What Smallholder Effect?

We witness a promotion of hybrid partnerships, where actors with different competences and resources collaborate for smallholder inclusive value chain development. To better understand the functioning of these partnerships, we used institutional theory and studied the context of a global and emerging regional food value chains in Ghana, the blending of logics by key actors in Innovation Platforms and Public Private Partnerships, and their effect on value chain relations of smallholder farmers. In the global value chain of cocoa, partnerships adhered to ‘green revolution’ and ‘free-market’ logics, and provided all farmers material support. In the more informally organised regional food sector, local executing partners selectively coupled their logics with those of poor smallholders, who rely on low-input agriculture and solidarity logics to make ends meet. This improved the position and transaction costs of smallholders to participate in the value chain. Hence, it is more likely for partnerships to create smallholder inclusive governance in informally organised regional food value chains, than highly structured global value chains controlled by international buyers. To gain insight in the variety of political effects this triggers in different social–historical shaped farmer communities, households and actors, we recommend complementary local research from a critical institutional perspective.

Decent work in global food value chains: Evidence from Senegal

The rapid growth and transformation of global food value chains has stimulated the development of rural labour markets and has important consequences for rural poverty reduction. While this transformation can be associated with substantial rural employment creation, there is still debate on the inclusiveness and quality of these jobs. We provide quantitative evidence on the inclusiveness of wage employment in the horticultural sector in Senegal and on the quality of this employment and disparities among vulnerable groups of workers. Using survey data from 525 workers, 392 hired workers in agro-industrial companies and 133 workers on small-scale farms, we assess the inclusiveness of employment towards female, young and migrant workers, and compare the quality of employment between these different groups of workers. The quality of employment is assessed through wages and a decent work index that captures multiple wage and non-wage dimensions of job quality. We use bivariate and multivariate analyses to examine the quality of employment and a decomposition analysis to explain wage gaps. Results suggest that job quality is better in the agro-industry than on small-scale farms. We find that the agro-industry is inclusive towards migrant, female and young workers, but that disparities in job quality exist within and across companies. Results illustrate substantial gender wage gaps across companies, but not within companies, and a lower likelihood of having decent employment among migrant and young workers. Our results suggest that wage gaps can be explained by differences in job characteristics, and are not directly based on workers’ gender, age or migrant background.

Markets and misfits in adaptive water governance: how agricultural markets shape water conflict and cooperation

Agricultural trade poses dilemmas for adaptive water governance as farmers and irrigation systems become integrated into global food value chains and are affected by their ongoing dynamics. The benefits and risks of agricultural trade and agrarian transitions are unevenly distributed, giving rise to complex interdependencies and externalities. Despite these growing linkages, the understanding of agricultural markets and their influence on water conflict and cooperation remains limited and dependent on context, which can lead to seemingly contradictory evidence. Progress has been hampered by boundary problems, disputed concepts, measurement issues, and divergent normative perspectives. Addressing these challenges will require that water governance scholars account more explicitly for agricultural trade when diagnosing collective action problems and assessing different modes of adaptive water governance. Drawing on the common-pool resource governance literature, we distinguish three separate, but interrelated, conceptual perspectives examining agricultural trade as an external factor in water governance: (1) market integration as a disturbance, (2) market integration as an opportunity, and (3) agricultural trade as a form of telecoupling with nested externalities. We compare these perspectives in terms of the externalities involved, their major claims about the relationship between market integration and collective action in the context of irrigation governance, and the broader implications for adaptive water governance. The comparison demonstrates the prevalence of institutional misfits and the common struggle of boundary shifting, i.e., matching water governance to the expanding problem-shed associated with agricultural markets. Institutional fit offers one important lens through which to consider the shifting boundaries (and actors) relevant for water governance, the scope and limits for strengthening fit through social learning, and the importance of nested governance to address nested externalities. These insights point the way for an agenda of research that examines the evolution of agricultural trade and adaptive water governance and pays explicit attention to the politics and power relations that shape who wins and loses and the different levers and entry points to improve management of the associated transitions and trade-offs. We conclude by arguing that future research should identify and examine pathways of adaptive water governance that strengthen processes of social learning and institutional nesting to address the external pressures and opportunities created by global food value chains.

INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT FOR FORMATION OF EFFICIENT LOGISTIC CHAINS OF COMMODITY MARKETS IN EXTERNAL DIMENSION

Topicality. Modern trends in the formation of institutional support for logistics chains of commodity markets, led to the urgent need to consider them on the example of the food market. The integration of domestic agricultural enterprises into value chains is fundamentally important for the development of Ukraine's agricultural industry. Participation in such logistics chains provides a synergistic effect that allows participants, stakeholders to join forces to achieve their goals and objectives and generally improves competitiveness in food markets, including foreign ones. Possibility of control of a logistic chain of creation of the added value and rich positive experience of development of integration allows to activate available commodity potential objects and objects. Economic policy and the interest of stakeholders in logistics product chains, which is why it is formed and implemented through the prism of institutional support in the external dimension.Аim and tasks. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the theoretical and methodological provisions and to develop practical recommendations for the formation of logistics chains to add value to the provision of foreign commodity markets in their markets.Research results. Analysis of the problems of efficiency of global agri-food value chains and a specific market participant, allows you to study agricultural enterprises in this chain and the links between them to see how and when they can be strengthened to achieve production and marketing efficiency; or to facilitate a more efficient vertical and horizontal flow of information, production factors and resources. Such an analysis may reveal efficiency constraints related to a specific feature of global agri-food value chains in commodity markets. Both developed and developing countries must be able to take advantage of global food value chains. Recent data show that as countries participate in global value chains of commodity markets, the growth rate of their gross domestic product increases. Value chains play an important role as a source of job creation. Thus, trade and supply in food hubs within the logistics chains of food markets stimulates the development of logistics as a critical component of global chains, as it is extremely important to supply products in the right quantity, the right quality, on time. The study also focuses on general market factors that affect the efficiency of specific value chains in the external dimension: legislative, regulatory and political environment; availability and quality of support services such as funding, training and information technology.Conclusions. Thus, the formation of efficient logistics chains allows to strengthen ties, cooperation between agricultural enterprises and multinational corporations through a transparent regulatory and investment environment in Ukraine. The ability of agri-food entities to withstand the effects of negative institutional factors, crises, adaptively and promptly make adjustments and respond to changes in the market environment in the agri-food market. The concept of integrating the mechanisms of domestic agri-food markets into global value chains makes sense, as it can bridge the gap between government policy and the realities of the food business.

Reimagining global food value chains through effective resilience to COVID-19 shocks and similar future events: A dynamic capability perspective

The restructuring of global value/supply chains gained increasing attention as the unprecedented COVID-19 echoed around the world. Yet, the COVID-19 related theory-driven, large scale quantitative, and empirical studies are relatively scarce. This study advances the extant literature by empirically investigating how do firms in the global food value chains (GFVCs) re-imagine their businesses structure in response to the COVID-19—becoming more resilient and competitive to the current pandemic and similar future events. We leverage a unique data of 231 senior managers of the Australian GFVCs and examine their firms’ response strategies. Drawing upon key insights from the dynamic capability view, we find that GFVCs’ competitiveness is achieved when exposure to COVID-19 shocks elicits dynamic capabilities—readiness, response, recovery—and these capabilities work jointly and sequentially to cultivate resilience. A key finding of this study is that firms with domestic plus global value chain partners are more resilient than those having only global business partners. This finding implies that excessive reliance on offshoring sometimes becomes lethal, especially amid unexpected and prolonged global shocks and, therefore, companies should strike a balance between domestic and global business partners to remain competitive. These findings offer important contributions to theory, practice, and UN sustainable development goals.

The Importance of Social Common Capital and Global Food Value Chain

The Importance of Social Common Capital and Global Food Value Chain

Industrial applications of selected JFS articles

Industrial applications of selected <i>JFS</i> articles

아시아지역의 글로벌식품가치사슬 협력방안 연구: 참깨산업을 중심으로

아시아지역의 글로벌식품가치사슬 협력방안 연구: 참깨산업을 중심으로

Japanese Agriculture and Capital Expansion: The Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Global Food Value Chain Strategy

ABSTRACT This article explores the intersection of two nationwide policy discussions in Japan: the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Global Food Value Chain (GFVC) strategy. The former has indicated a radical reform and liberalisation of Japanese agriculture and the latter promotes Japanese agriculture “on the offensive” and its overseas expansion. The TPP generated public concerns about external market forces coming into Japanese society and the GFVC is essentially about Japanese capital and agriculture reaching out to overseas markets. While Japan’s participation in the TPP became a controversial topic in the country, the GFVC strategy has relatively quietly rooted itself in the policy and public spheres. Current national policies describe challenges in Japanese capitalist society as agricultural problems and reframe the risks and costs of the free market on the population as a greater opportunity (or solution) for Japanese agriculture. Such logics have significant risks of accelerating problems inherent in Japan’s existing mode of production especially concerning the subordination of labour power to capital.

Agricultural Cooperation in The Kyrgyz Republic: Potential, Problems and Prospects

The article has been written in order to disclose the development potential of agricultural cooperation in the Kyrgyz Republic in the conditions of its integration into the unified food market of Eurasian Economic Union member states. Cooperation is considered an efficient economic mechanism of integration of small agricultural producers into national and global food value chains. Upon examination of works revealing the potential of cooperation in the development of value chains, analysis of the agrarian structure and evaluation of the potential held by member states for cooperation, the authors of the article have proposed measures for comprehensive development of agricultural cooperation in the Kyrgyz Republic. The article is based on the materials by international organizations, the National Committee of Statistics of the Kyrgyz Republic, the Eurasian Economic Commission and results of research conducted by separate authors. The article’s materials can be used to generalize the international practice of studying the role of cooperation in the development of food value chains and to improve institutional conditions and government policy of supporting cooperation in the Kyrgyz Republic. They are also of interest for a broad group of researchers in the field of agricultural cooperation.

Agricultural Cooperation in The Kyrgyz Republic: Potential, Problems and Prospects

The article has been written in order to disclose the development potential of agricultural cooperation in the Kyrgyz Republic in the conditions of its integration into the unified food market of Eurasian Economic Union member states. Cooperation is considered an efficient economic mechanism of integration of small agricultural producers into national and global food value chains. Upon examination of works revealing the potential of cooperation in the development of value chains, analysis of the agrarian structure and evaluation of the potential held by member states for cooperation, the authors of the article have proposed measures for comprehensive development of agricultural cooperation in the Kyrgyz Republic. The article is based on the materials by international organizations, the National Committee of Statistics of the Kyrgyz Republic, the Eurasian Economic Commission and results of research conducted by separate authors. The article’s materials can be used to generalize the international practice of studying the role of cooperation in the development of food value chains and to improve institutional conditions and government policy of supporting cooperation in the Kyrgyz Republic. They are also of interest for a broad group of researchers in the field of agricultural cooperation.

Financialization of the food value chain, common ownership and competition law

ABSTRACTWe explore the possibility that common ownership may constitute a competition concern, raising issues of unilateral effects, horizontal collusion, vertical exclusion and vertical exploitation. We proceed to empirical investigation in the context of Global Food Value Chains using the tool of advanced social network analysis, which captures the raising concern that many institutional investors are passive investors in the diverse companies that are active at various segments of the chain. In view of the possible negative welfare effects of common ownership on competition and its prevalence in the food sector, it is contended that competition authorities need to develop adequate legal tools to deal with this issue and rely on economics but also other sources of wisdom (e.g. advanced social network analysis) that may enable a better mapping of the complexity of competitive interactions in this sector and be more adequate in the context of a complex economy.

Global and local food value chains in Africa: A review

AbstractThe rapid expansion of agrifood exports from low‐ and middle‐income countries and the contribution of global value chains to rural development are well‐documented in the literature. Also, studies on modernization of domestic food value chains in these countries are emerging. Yet, the linkages between global and local value chains are rarely studied. On the one hand, the development and expansion of global value chains may create competition with local value chains for land, labor, water, soil nutrients, and other resources. On the other hand, positive spillover effects, such as investment, technical or institutional spillovers, may occur and spur the development of local value chains. In this article, we put forward a conceptual discussion on the type of linkages between global and local value chains, and how these depend on crop and value chain characteristics. We review the empirical evidence on these linkages. Our focus is on Africa, where agrifood exports and global value chains evolved rapidly and where challenges remain to upgrade and increase efficiency in local food value chains.