World Bank workshop, March 31, 2005

Coordinated supply chains are rapidly increasing in importance in global food markets. They are commercial tools for competitive strategies, assuring quality, food safety, and better logistics. They serve high-end markets, especially in industrial countries, but increasingly also in developing countries in urban areas with relatively high income. There is widespread fear that small-scale farmers will be excluded from coordinated supply chains. Empirical evidence on such exclusion is mixed.

This session presented two case studies on participation of small-scale farmers in modern supply chains, and a Rabobank study on supply-chain development. One case study presented experiences of linking farmer groups to enterprises in a Bank project in Colombia, the other was about a successful small Thai exporter who set up fruit and vegetable export to high-end supermarkets in Europe and Japan and who manages sub-contracting schemes with over 900 small-scale farmers. The Rabobank presentation focused on factors for success for forming modern coordinated supply chains and was based on its broad international experience.

Materials available here [1]:

Partnerships between rural farmer associations and commercial private sector - A Colombian Experience (Maria Clara Rodriguez and Gustavo Vergara, Alianzas Productivas, Colombia )

A private sector case study from Thailand. Opportunities and challenges of Thai fresh fruit (Chusak Chuenprayoth, Exporter and supply chain coordinator, Thailand)

Experiences with Small Holders (Gerard van Empel, Rabobank)

Pathways out of Poverty - Can R&D help small scale producers benefit from coordinated supply chains? (Joachim Voss, Executive Committee, CIAT)