Upgrading fair trade: a case study in Madagascar

ABSTRACT

Fair trade has come under a barrage of criticism in recent years. Often the two targets of this criticism have been the impact of fair trade and the asymmetry of power between the Global North and South that benefits the North. This article presents a case study from Madagascar which illustrates the positive aspects of fair trade, along with its capacity to involve Global South producers higher up the value chain (functional upgrading), thereby ensuring that these producers are better able to manage their production and the inherent risks.

KEYWORDS:

• Civil society – NGOs, Partnership
• Aid – Development policies
• Labour and livelihoods – Poverty reduction
• Sub-Saharan Africa

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For more information about the AVSF programme, see: www.avsf.org/fr/posts/1632/full/des-cooperatives-plus-fortes-a-madagascar.

2 The Protect research project (2018–2020): “Social protection in Madagascar: Identifying and understanding the innovative forms of social protection with a view to sharing these forms with socio-economic actors”, funded by Nouvelle Aquitaine region in France.

3 The local topography and farming history also have a role: the area is made up of a series of shallow basins. This lowland is perfect for growing rice, which is irrigated when the hills benefit from agroforestry. Bushes such as coffee and cloves were introduced during the colonial period, but coffee growing has generally been replaced by clove growing (Panco et al. 2013).

4 To a lesser extent, other subsistence crops, such as manioc and breadfruit, are grown, and this is particularly the case if the household has little land, and this land is primarily lowland.

5 Our sample includes moderately prosperous households that are in a position to invest in vanilla growing. Vanilla faming has a considerable number of barriers to entry: high-priced plants, requires agroforestry land, and high labour costs.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jérôme Ballet

Jérôme Ballet is Associate Professor at the University of Bordeaux. He works mainly on ethics, economics and development.

Claire Gondard-Delcroix

Claire Gondard-Delcroix is Associate Professor in economics at the University of Bordeaux. She works on poverty reduction strategies and is currently developing a research project on social protection in developing countries.

Dilane Cedras

Dilane Cedras is a PhD student at the Université Catholique de Madagascar. He focuses on social protection and informal coping household strategies.