Can a public GAP approach ensure safety and fairness? A comparative study of Q-GAP in Thailand

Abstract

Since the early 2000s, the governments in ASEAN (the Association of South East Asian Nations) countries have developed ‘good agricultural practices’ (GAP) as public approaches to field-level quality assurance. Besides the primary goals of consumer food safety and quality assurance, these public GAP programs aim to support small-scale farmer inclusion in mainstream markets. This goal represents the antithesis of the prevailing trend that private GAP approaches have tightened integration with resourceful, large-scale producers in global value chains. This paper examines the compatibility of the goals of safety assurance and social justice in a public GAP approach through comparative analysis of Thailand's Q-GAP between two local contexts of fruit production and marketing. The research findings suggest that while the public GAP scheme could draw the participation of a broad cohort of local small-scale producers and serve to certify their production, its impact on changing producers' on-field practices and catalyzing their access to the global market through food safety assurance is limited. The binding factors include the lack of producers' understanding of the principles of the programme, limited additional economic merits for them, and the influence of extra-local market forces that stress economies of size and food quality rather than food safety.

Keywords:

• safety and fairness
• public GAP
• global value chains
• Q-GAP
• small-scale producers
• sustainable agriculture
• Thailand

Notes

¹Production requirements are not necessarily the sole determinant of smallholder exclusion; a concomitant set of supply chain logistics requirements pertains to mainstream retailing, such as product quality, consistent volumes, transportation, processing, accounting, and invoicing (Reardon and Berdegué 2002, Glati et al. 2007).

²In the original text of Berdegué et al. (2005), the inverted U-curve is associated with quality standards and the rising curve is associated with safety standards. In the author's communication, the corresponding author acknowledged that the associations were misplaced.

³In Thailand, there is also a private standard called ThaiGAP, established in 2008 through collaboration by the nation's industrial interests and Kasetsart University. It has been owned by the Thai Chamber of Commerce (Wannamolee 2008). This program has been benchmarked to GlobalGAP, and defined, as of December 2010, as a provisionally approved standard waiting for formal accreditation of the responsible Certification Bodies (CBs) (GlobalGAP 2010). Q-GAP and ThaiGAP are essentially independent bodies from each other and have not been working very closely.

⁴The Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy was bestowed by the Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej after the economic crisis hit Thailand in 1997. It was then used as an overarching guideline in formulating the 9th and 10th National Development Plans. The Philosophy discursively stresses the importance to take a ‘middle path’ for all the societal levels of the nation in pursuing a balanced economic development by modernizing the nation in line with the forces of globalization while safeguarding it from the shocks and excesses that arise. To achieve this goal, a balanced application of Buddhist spiritual virtues such as honesty, forbearance, diligence, self-awareness, intelligence, attentiveness, among others, is emphasized.

⁵Regarding the export of fresh fruit and vegetables (FFV) in Thailand, a main focus of this study, the total value was US$511 million in 2005, increasing 69 percent from US$300 million in 1999. In 2005, the major FFV export destinations included Japan (19.8 percent), China (19.6 percent), ASEAN (16.4 percent), EU (12.7 percent), Hong Kong, China (7.3 percent), Taiwan, China (6.4 percent), and United States (5.8 percent).

⁶Out of the 29 crops, the main export crops include longan, durian, mangosteen, mango, asparagus, okra, baby corn, pummelo, lychee, tamarind, ginger, and chili. The other targets are rice, pineapple, young coconut, longkong, rambutan, coffee, peanut, soybean, orange, cabbage groups, beans, chili groups, melon groups, herbs, sweet corn, onion and banana. Major importing destinations include EU, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, USA, and Malaysia (Bureau of Agriculture and Fisheries Product Standards 2007). Major Q-GAP certified fruits include longan (59,247 farms/58,178 hectares (ha)), durian (11,073 farms/18,487 ha), mangosteen (14,295 farms/18,306 ha), and mango (7469 farms/533 ha). Major vegetables are baby corn (1382 farms/736 ha) and asparagus (1608/533 ha) (Wannamolee 2008).

⁷Two members were certified in October 2006 and the rest 33 members were certified in June 2007. These represented the first certification of this area, and at the time of research re-certification was underway for two farmers who were certified in 2006.

⁸The six grower households who could not be interviewed include three who had ceased to grow pummelo by the time of the research, two who had moved to Bangkok for seasonal migration, and two who said they were too busy for interview.

⁹One US Dollar accounted for approximately 31 Baht throughout the time of the research. A fruit product of good size and quality is weighed 10 kg and is thus priced 10 Baht (US$0.32) per crop in Kaset Sombun.

¹⁰All of them were certified in June 2006.

¹¹The six households who were not interviewed were those who quitted growing pummelo after they were certified in June 2006.

¹²Pummelo was said to be traditionally popular among these countries in relation to its use for Chinese religious ceremonies.

¹³An exception is the case of two certified producers in Kaset Sombun who are relatives to each other. They maintain close relationships with local officers of DoAE and DoA; when the government holds a festival in Chaiyaphum province, they are invited to sell pummelos at 8 Baht (US$0.26) per kg involving 3 Baht premiums over the local price for Q-GAP certification.

¹⁴Indeed, this region is not free from pesticides; many use insecticides for rice farming, though the amount may be no more than that applied in many other areas.

¹⁵Besides, three producers identified as the most serious potential risk a reduction in the amount of produced pummelos or deceleration of pummelo growth through reduced pesticide spraying; two producers identified as such an increase in labor time by incorporating more labor-intensive organic methods (e.g. EM composting and spraying); and one producer identified as such a reduction in the size of pummelo fruits caused by a reduction in the use of chemical fertilizers. The other three producers noted that there were no potential risks.

¹⁶Thaksin Shinawatra, the former prime minister (2000–2006), designed this rural industrialization scheme during 2001–2006 under the name of One Tambon One Product by drawing inspirations from the successful One Village One Product program in Oita prefecture, Japan. This program aims to foster local entrepreneurship within village communities in order to come up with the best quality local product in the subdisrict (‘Tambon’ means subdistrict in Thai) to be branded for marketing promotion at the local, national, and international levels. After the military junta overthrew Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai administration in September 2005, OTOP was once revoked but then revived with minor changes in the name of Local and Community Products.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yuichiro Amekawa

The author is grateful to Robert E. Mazur, Mike Duffy, Jan Flora, Gail Nonnecke, and Teresa Downing-Matibag for their valuable comments to improve the paper. Also, many thanks go to two anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions.