Examinando por Autor "Ruben, Ruerd"

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How standards compete: comparative impact of coffee certification schemes in Northern Nicaragua
(Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica., 2011) Ruben, Ruerd; Zúñiga Arias, Guillermo
Purpose: Smallholder farmers are increasingly subject to different types of standards that offer specific conditions for their market incorporation. The proliferation of private and voluntary (civic) standards raises questions regarding their impact on farmers' welfare and their role in the upgrading of value chains. This paper aims to address this issue. Design/methodology/approach: Based on extensive fieldwork and careful matching of 315 farmers in Northern Nicaragua who produce coffee under Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance and Café Practices labels or deliver to independent traders, the effects on income, production and investments are compared. Moreover, the implications of different contract conditions for risk behaviour, organizational force, loyalty and gender attitudes are assessed. Findings: The paper finds that Fair Trade provides better prices compared with independent producers, but private labels out-compete Fair Trade in terms of yield and quality performance. While Fair Trade can be helpful to support initial market incorporation, private labels offer more suitable incentives for quality upgrading. Research limitations/implications: Civic standards exhibit major effects on local institutions' and farmers' behaviour, while B2B standards are more effective for improving production and management practices. Dynamic improvement standards may bridge the gap between both. Practical implications: Fair Trade standards are useful to provide initial market access to small-holders, but private standards offer better prospects for subsequent quality upgrading. Originality/value: This is the first large-scale comparative impact assessment of coffee standards that delivers unbiased empirical results.
Managing quality heterogeneity in the mango supply chain: evidence from Costa Rica
(Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica., 2009) Zúñiga-Arias, Guillermo; Ruben, Ruerd; Van Boekel, Martinus
Quality is a key aspect for evaluating the performance of com modity chains. Quality performance depends on both subjec tive consumer perceptions as well as intrinsic attributes of the product. Supply chain procedures and management activities influence the quality level and may reduce or increase the heterogeneity in product quality. In additional to technologi cal measures, timely access to information on market and management options can be helpful to reduce human-related variability. In this article we present an explorative framework for dis entangling the interactions between different managerial activ ities that have an effect on quality variability in mangoes. We use data dispersion statistics to understand the impact of tech nological and socio-economic factors on heterogeneity in quality performance at different stages of the supply chain. Based on a field survey amongst 51 different agents involved in the mango chain from Costa Rica, information regarding production technologies, agroecological conditions, manage ment intensity, quality control, contracting practices and marketing operations is collected. We also tested randomly 10 mangoes from each agent to analyze the variability in quality attributes, focusing on the ratio between Brix and pH. We find that quality heterogeneity is influenced both by technological variability and by socio-economic diversity. In the mango supply chain from Costa Rica, management differ ences amongst agents vary depending on the upstream and downstream relationships. Agents related to international traders tend to maintain lowest variability in their management practices in order to be able to respond better to consumer de mands. Effective linkages with downstream agents are thus critical to guarantee appropriate incentives for managing qual ity in upstream segments.