From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

3 POVERTY AND WEALTH LIVING OFF THE LANDbut the company takes no responsibility for social security, sick leave,paid leave, or severance pay.The typical tourist image of colourful, chaotic street markets andwarrens of small shops is a stereotype that is quickly going out of date,thanks to the rapid spread of supermarkets in developing countries. Inresponse to urbanisation, the rise of a consuming middle class, andmore liberalised investment rules, locally and internationally ownedsupermarkets now buy the lion’s share of farm production in manycountries, creating a demand for intermediate- to high-quality productsin countries that traditionally exported such goods.The first wave of supermarkets hit developing countries in theearly 1990s, appearing in major cities in the richer countries of EastAsia (outside China), Central Europe, and Latin America. By 2000,they accounted for 50–60 per cent of retail sales, close to their share inthe USA or France. They soon expanded to smaller and poorer countriesin Central America, the Andes, and Southern and then Eastern Africa.Their take-off in Asia is now registering even faster growth than inLatin America. According to China’s Ministry of Commerce, 70,000supermarkets opened in rural areas of the country in 2005. 36 Thephenomenon is now beginning to be seen in South Asia and West Africa.The implications for small farmers are profound. Supermarketssource the majority of their products locally, and the volumes tradedare significant. In Latin America, the value of local food purchased bysupermarkets is 2.5 times higher than the region’s exports to the rest ofthe world. 37 Domestic markets are central to the livelihoods of smallfarmers, and supermarkets could potentially expand farmers’ sales.But unless they can meet the supermarkets’ demanding quality andquantity requirements, farmers risk being consigned to the leastprofitable backwaters of the domestic economy, just as they are currentlyat the global level.The rise of food processors and fast food chains in developingcountries poses similar challenges. Citing problems of scale and quality,branches of McDonalds and Pizza Hut in Ecuador prefer to importpotatoes for French fries, even though the Andes is the original homeof the potato. Similar problems have dogged the spread of tourism.Caribbean smallholders have watched in frustration as hotels importburgers, vegetables, and fruit from the USA, while they have to eke a125