The global retail revolution, fruiticulture and economic development in north-east Brazil

ABSTRACT

Rapidly expanding world fruiticulture markets provide developing country producers with new income opportunities and much development literature and policy is orientated towards facilitating export production in these countries. However, it has been widely observed that the global retail revolution is accelerating the exclusion of small producers from export markets and (increasingly) from many domestic retail chains due to rising entry barriers. Small producers are thus often only able to sell their produce on to relatively low price ‘traditional’ markets. This paper is based on data collected from a recently emerged fruiticulture sector in north-east Brazil. It shows that (a) export fruiticulture does generate significant economic benefits, (b) that modern domestic retail markets are increasingly demanding and exclusionary, but also, and counter to much of the literature concerned with export promotion, that (c) small-farms producing fruiticulture products for ‘traditional’ domestic markets do generate positive local economic impacts. Policymakers should, therefore, consider new ways of assisting smaller producers to enter these markets.

KEYWORDS:

• Latin America
• Brazil
• fruiticulture
• small producers
• global retail revolution
• upgrading
• global commodity chains
• economic development

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I thank Henry Bernstein for help in conducting the research presented here. The usual disclaimers apply.

Notes

1. See Wrigley and Lowe (2007) for a recent overview of the trajectory of and debates concerning the global retail revolution.

2. I discuss these wider developmental questions in relation to the current case study in Selwyn (2012) and in broader theoretical terms in Selwyn (2011a, 2011b and 2011c) – where I argue that the form and content of class relations (or processes and outcomes of class struggle) are a core determinant of whether economic growth translates into human development.

3. Research was conducted in 2002 and 2003. I conducted open-ended semi-structured interviews on 26 farms with top and mid-level managers and with producer organisations, development agency staff, and agricultural co-operatives. Interviews were organised around a series of questions about the nature and causes of changing market and buyer requirements and farm producer organisation and development agency strategies for meeting these.

4. http://www.ibraf.org.br/ (accessed 5 June 2009).

5. Data provided by CODEVASF officials.

6. I explore these dynamics in depth in Selwyn (2007, 2010, 2011a, 2012).

7. Author's calculation, 2007.

8. Interview with author.

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid.

11. Author's calculation

12. Interview with author.