The central concern of Global Commodity (or Value) Chain analysis is to identify upgrading possibilities for poor country (or region) producers as a mechanism for accelerating local-level development. Whilst the framework has made impressive progress in explaining how chain governance impacts upon suppliers' upgrading opportunities it has been relatively weak in integrating local-level institutions into its analysis and policy advice. This paper addresses this weakness by focusing on the interaction between suppliers' organisations and state development agencies in facilitating systematic upgrading for large numbers of producers. It is based on research on export grape production in North East Brazil, and finds that whilst exporters may be particularly well informed about changing market and buyer requirements, state agencies play a key role in both establishing initial conditions of production and assisting producers to overcome evolving technical gaps generated by fast-changing markets.
AtkinsP.BowlerI. (2001) Food in Society (London: Arnold).
2.
BairJ. (2005) Global capitalism and commodity chains: Looking back, going forward, Competition and Change, (9): 153–180.
3.
BernsteinH.CamplingL. (2006) Commodity studies and commodity fetishism 1: Trading down, Journal of Agrarian Change, 6(2): 239–264.
4.
BlochD. (1996). As Frutas Amargas do Velho Chico: Irrigacao e Desenvolvimento no Vale do São Francisco (São Paulo: Oxfam).
5.
Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture (Ministerio da Agricultura e do Abastecimento) (1997) Programa de Apoio e Desenvolvimento da Fruticultura Irrigada do Nordeste (Brasilia: Ministerio da Agricultura e do Abastecimento).
6.
CammackP. (1991) Brazil: The long march to the new republic, New Left Review, 190: 21–58.
7.
ChilcoteR. (1990). Power and the Ruling Classes in North East Brazil: Juazeiro and Petrolina in Transition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
8.
ClarkeI. (2000) Retail power, competition and local consumer choice in the UK grocer sector, European Journal of Marketing, 34(8): 975–1002.
9.
CollinsJ.KrippnerG. (1999) Permanent labor contracts in agriculture: Flexibility and subordination in a new export crop, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 41(3): 510–534.
10.
DamianiO. (1999) Beyond Market Failures: Irrigation, the State and Non-traditional Agriculture in Northeast Brazil, unpublished PhD thesis, MIT.
11.
DolanC.HumphreyJ. (2000) Governance and trade in fresh vegetables: The impact of UK supermarkets on the African horticulture industry, Journal of Development Studies, 37(2): 147–176.
12.
DolanC.HumphreyJ. (2004) Changing governance patterns in the trade in fresh vegetables between Africa and the United Kingdom, Environment and Planning A, 36(3): 491–509.
13.
DolanC.TewariM. (2001) From what we wear to what we eat: Upgrading in global value chains, IDS Bulletin, 37(2): 94–104.
14.
EcheverriaR. (1998) Agricultural research policy issues in Latin America: An overview, World Development, 26(6): 1103–1111.
15.
EMBRAPA (2000) A Viticultura no Semi-Arido Brasileiro (Petrolina: EMBRAPA).
16.
European Commision (2003) The horticulture sector in the European Union, Brussels, DG Agriculture.
17.
FreidbergS. (2003) Cleaning up down south: Supermarkets, ethical trade and African horticulture, Social and Cultural Geography, 4(1): 27–43.
18.
GamaP. (2001) Articulação Dos Interesses Publicos e Privados No Polo Petrolina-PE/Juazeiro-B A. Unpublished doctoral thesis, Unicamp, São Paulo.
19.
GereffiG. (1994) The organisation of buyer-driven global commodity chains: How US retailers shape overseas production networks, in GereffiG.KorzeniewiczM. (eds), Commodity Chains and Global Capitalism (Westport, CT: Praeger).
20.
GereffiG. (1995) Global production systems and third world development, in StallingsB. (ed.), Global Change, Regional Response: The New International Context Of Development (New York: Cambridge University Press), pp. 100–143.
21.
GereffiG. (1999) International trade and industrial upgrading in the apparel commodity chain, Journal of International Economics, 48(1): 37–70.
22.
GereffiG.KorzeniewiczM. (eds) (1994) Commodity Chains and Global Capitalism (Westport, CT: Praeger).
23.
GereffiG.HumphreyJ.SturgeonT. (2005) The governance of global value chains, Review of International Political Economy, 12(1): 78–104.
24.
GibbonP. (2003) Value-chain governance, public regulation and entry barriers in the global fresh fruit and vegetable chain into the EU, Development Policy Review, 21(5–6): 615–625.
25.
GibbonP.PonteS. (2005) Trading Down: Africa, Value Chains, and the Global Economy (Philadelphia: Temple University Press).
26.
GomesR. (2004) Upgrading without exclusion: Lessons from SMEs in fresh fruit clusters in Brazil, unpublished doctoral thesis, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts.
27.
GrayA.KleihU. (1997) The Potential for Selected Indian Horticultural Products on the European Market (London: Natural Resource Institute).
28.
HallumD.LiuP.LaversG.PilkauskasR.RapsomanikisG.ClaroJ. (2004) The Market for Non-traditional Agricultural Exports (Rome: Food and Agriculture Organisation).
29.
HensonS.JaffeeS. (2008) Understanding developing country strategic responses to the enhancement of food safety standards, World Economy, 31(4): 548–568.
30.
HobdayM. (1995) Innovation in East Asia: The Challenge to Japan (Aldershot: Edward Elgar).
31.
HughesA. (2005) Corporate strategies and the management of ethical trade: A case study of UK food and clothing retailers, Environment and Planning A, (37):1145–1163.
32.
HumphreyJ. (2006) Policy implications of trends in agribusiness value chains, European Journal of Development Research, 18(4): 572–592.
33.
HumphreyJ.SchmitzH. (2001) Governance in global value chains, IDS Bulletin, 32(1): 1–8.
34.
HumphreyJ.SchmitzH. (2002) How does insertion in global value chains affect upgrading in industrial clusters?, Regional Studies, 36(9): 1017–1027.
35.
HumphreyJ.McCullochN.OtaM. (2004) The impact of European market changes on employment in the Kenyan horticulture sector, Journal of International Development, 16(1): 63–80.
36.
KaplinskyR. (2003) How can agricultural commodity producers appropriate a greater share of value chain incomes?, paper presented at the FAO Symposium on the State of Research and Future Directions in Agricultural Commodity Markets and Trade, Rome.
KeesingD.LallS. (1992) Marketing manufactured exports from developing countries: Learning sequences and public support, in HelleinerG. (ed.), Trade Policy, Industrialisation and Development (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
39.
LallS. (2003) Reinventing industrial strategy: The role of government policy in building industrial competitiveness. QEH Working Paper Series No. 111. Oxford: Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
40.
LarsenM. (2004) Governing post-liberalised markets: National market coordination and the global cotton chain, unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Copenhagen.
41.
MakabeT. (1999) Ethnic hegemony: The Japanese Brazilians in agriculture, 1908–1968, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 22(4): 702–723.
42.
MarsdenT. (1997) Creating space for food: The distinctiveness of recent agrarian development, in GoodmanD.WattsM. (eds), Globalising Food: Agrarian Questions and Global Restructuring (London: Routledge), pp. 169–191.
43.
PalpacuerF.ParisottoA. (2003) Global production and local jobs: Can global enterprise networks be used as levers for local development?, Global Networks: A Journal of Transnational Affairs, 3(2): 97–120.
44.
PereiraA.W. (1997) The End of the Peasantry: The Rural Labour Movement in Northeast Brazil, 1961–1988 (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press).
45.
PietrobelliC.RabellottiR. (2004) Competitiveness and upgrading in clusters and value chains: The case of Latin America, paper presented at the DTI/UNIDO Competitiveness conference, Pretoria, South Africa.
46.
PooleR.ClarkeG.ClarkeB. (2002) Growth, concentration, and regulation in European food retailing, European Urban and Regional Studies, 9(2): 167–186.
47.
PorterM. (1998) The Competitive Advantage of Nations (New York: Free Press).
48.
Rabobank (2001) Fruit Traders in Trouble (Utrecht: Rabobank).
49.
de SouzaH. Ramos (1990) O impacto da irrigacao sobre of desenvolvimento do semi-arido nordestino: Situacão atual e perspectives, Revista Economica do Nordeste, 21(3/4): 481–517.
50.
ReardonT.CodronJ.M.BuschL.BingenJ.HarrisC. (2001) Global change in agrifood grades and standards: Agribusiness strategic responses in developing countries, International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, 2(3): 421–435.
51.
ReardonT.TimmerC.M.BarrettC.B.BerdegueJ. (2003) The rise of supermarkets in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 85(5): 1140–1146.
52.
ReifschneiderF.UmaL. (1998) Making competitive grants programs of the National Agricultural Research System work: Learning from the Brazilian experience, unpublished manuscript, Brasilia.
53.
RobertsM.TyboutJ. (1995) An Empirical Model of Sunk Costs and the Decision to Export (Washington, DC: World Bank).
54.
SchmitzH. (1999) Global competition and local cooperation: Success and failure in the Sinos Valley, Brazil, World Development, 27(9): 1627–1650.
55.
SchmitzH. (2007) Reducing complexity in the industrial policy debate, Development Policy Review, 25(4): 417–428.
56.
SelwynB. (2007a) Export grape production and development in North East Brazil, unpublished PhD thesis, University of London.
57.
SelwynB. (2007b) Labor process and workers' bargaining power in export grape production, North East Brazil, Journal of Agrarian Change, 7(4): 526–553.
58.
SmithA.RainnieA.DunfordM.HardyJ.HudsonR.SadlerD. (2002) Networks of value, commodities and regions: Reworking divisions of labour in macro-regional economies, Progress in Human Geography, 26(1): 41–63.
59.
UnnevehrL.JensenH. (1999) The economic implications of using HACCP as a food safety regulatory standard, Food Policy, 24.
60.
Valexport (2002) Valexport e a Fruiticultura no Vale do São Francisco (Petrolina: VALEXPORT).
