Retail Companies as Integrators of Value Chains in Developing Countries

Retail Companies as Integrators of Value Chains in Developing Countries: Diffusion, Procurement System Change, and Trade and Development Effects

GTZ, Eschborn, November 2005.

Abstract. There has been extremely rapid transformation in the past decade of the food retail sector, embodied in the rapid spread of supermarkets, in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. As the supermarket sector develops, leading chains are rapidly adopting technological and governance changes in their product procurement systems. These changes alter the market facing farmers, and have the potential to substantially transform the nature, composition, and volume of domestic market commerce as well as trade. These trends in turn present both opportunities and challenges for development that require careful program and policy attention.

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