Regional Markets

4 Opportunities for development
availability less so, and neither are nutritional requirements and habits addressed very
much. Most cases focused on increasing incomes (by improving production, organising
collective marketing or other means), as a strategy for improving food security. Figure
4.3 shows the degree to which the projects explicitly mention food security as a guiding
principle for their activities. The label ‘low’ in this case means that food security in itself
is not a stated goal but is rather implicitly achieved through increased productivity.
This observation also holds true for the non-food commodity cases, such as cotton and
coffee. The RUDI, FoSHoL, and NGOMA cases are labeled ‘high’ as food security is
indeed central in their value chain development activities.
Figure 4.3 Food security focus
Coffee TZ
Cotton ZIM
Senegal
TAHA
FoSHoL
RUDI
NGOMA
LOW
HIGH
ZIM banana
FT
C:AVA
Fig 4.3 Continuum showing the extent to which projects explicitly mentioned food security as a guiding principle.
Food quality
Here we want to examine to which extent food quality considerations guide value chain
development. Regional markets in developing countries are not always regulated rigorously
and generally lack the stringent food quality standards found in mature markets, like the
European Union. This difference may be even stronger when markets in developing regions
are predominantly food commodity markets, while markets in developed areas are almost
purely (imported) cash crops based. A balance then needs to be struck between facilitating
engagement and participation of farmers in those regional markets and the necessary food
quality standards for assuring adequate nutrition and general health of the wider public.
Questions considered beforehand were related to the role that quality requirements
play in local and regional markets. Growing for local food commodity markets has
implications for food quality: quality standards are generally less high for local and
regional food markets. In that sense, quality control tools that come with developing
export markets will have implications for smallholder producers, e.g. their possible
future crowding out of the market, while their access at present is relatively easy.
149