IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/rss/jnljbs/v1i4p2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Analysing the Incidence of Labour Cost on Organic Production: Implications on Competitiveness

Author

Listed:
  • Jaime Rodríguez
  • Werther Kern
  • Daniel E. May

Abstract

International trade of organic food has increased dramatically over the last decades and it is dominated by a South-North relationship in which small farms of the South hemisphere export their production to countries of the North. These farms are currently facing important challenges in this relationship that negatively affect their ability to compete in international markets of organic goods. It is argued that the use of family labour can help farmers of the South to gain competitive advantage. The objective of this article is to present a counterargument based on the idea that the use of family labour is not feasible in some countries of the South given the nature of their rural labour market. This counterargument is supported by a case study.

Suggested Citation

  • Jaime Rodríguez & Werther Kern & Daniel E. May, 2015. "Analysing the Incidence of Labour Cost on Organic Production: Implications on Competitiveness," Quarterly Journal of Business Studies, Research Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 1(4), pages 141-148.
    • Handle: RePEc:rss:jnljbs:v1i4p2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://rassweb.org/admin/pages/ResearchPapers/Paper%202_1495913064.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daniel Jaffee & Philip Howard, 2010. "Corporate cooptation of organic and fair trade standards," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 27(4), pages 387-399, December.
    2. Verena Seufert & Navin Ramankutty & Jonathan A. Foley, 2012. "Comparing the yields of organic and conventional agriculture," Nature, Nature, vol. 485(7397), pages 229-232, May.
    3. Dirk Stelder, 2012. "Spatial monopoly of multi‐establishment firms: An empirical study for supermarkets in the Netherlands," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 91(1), pages 181-192, March.
    4. Bacon, Christopher, 2005. "Confronting the Coffee Crisis: Can Fair Trade, Organic, and Specialty Coffees Reduce Small-Scale Farmer Vulnerability in Northern Nicaragua?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 497-511, March.
    5. Raynolds, Laura T., 2004. "The Globalization of Organic Agro-Food Networks," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 725-743, May.
    6. Poulton, Colin & Dorward, Andrew & Kydd, Jonathan, 2010. "The Future of Small Farms: New Directions for Services, Institutions, and Intermediation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(10), pages 1413-1428, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Elisabeth Nindl, 2014. "An empirical assessment of Fairtrade: A perspective for low- and middle-income countries?," Department of Economics Working Papers wuwp160, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.
    2. Joni Valkila & Anja Nygren, 2010. "Impacts of Fair Trade certification on coffee farmers, cooperatives, and laborers in Nicaragua," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 27(3), pages 321-333, September.
    3. Laura Raynolds, 2014. "Fairtrade, certification, and labor: global and local tensions in improving conditions for agricultural workers," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(3), pages 499-511, September.
    4. Xiaohong Zhou & Donghong Ding, 2022. "Factors Influencing Farmers’ Willingness and Behaviors in Organic Agriculture Development: An Empirical Analysis Based on Survey Data of Farmers in Anhui Province," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-21, November.
    5. Tanushree Haldar & A. Damodaran, 2022. "Can cooperatives influence farmer’s decision to adopt organic farming? Agri-decision making under price volatility," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 5718-5742, April.
    6. Oelofse, Myles & Høgh-Jensen, Henning & Abreu, Lucimar S. & Almeida, Gustavo F. & Hui, Qiao Yu & Sultan, Tursinbek & de Neergaard, Andreas, 2010. "Certified organic agriculture in China and Brazil: Market accessibility and outcomes following adoption," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 1785-1793, July.
    7. Keenan, Michael & Fort, Ricardo & Vargas, Ricardo, 2024. "Shocked into side-selling? Production shocks and organic coffee farmers’ marketing decisions," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    8. Poulton, Colin & Macartney, Jon, 2012. "Can Public–Private Partnerships Leverage Private Investment in Agricultural Value Chains in Africa? A Preliminary Review," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 96-109.
    9. Meike Wollni & David R. Lee & Janice E. Thies, 2010. "Conservation agriculture, organic marketing, and collective action in the Honduran hillsides," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 41(3‐4), pages 373-384, May.
    10. Jurjonas, Matthew & Crossman, Katie & Solomon, Jennifer & Baez, Walter Lopez, 2016. "Potential Links Between Certified Organic Coffee and Deforestation in a Protected Area in Chiapas, Mexico," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 13-21.
    11. Latynskiy, Evgeny & Berger, Thomas, 2012. "An Agent-Based Network Approach For Understanding, Analyzing And Supporting Rural Producer Organizations In Agriculture," 52nd Annual Conference, Stuttgart, Germany, September 26-28, 2012 137383, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA).
    12. Jeroen Vos & Rutgerd Boelens, 2014. "Sustainability Standards and the Water Question," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 45(2), pages 205-230, March.
    13. Elisabeth Nindl, 2014. "An empirical assessment of Fairtrade: A perspective for low- and middle-income countries?," EcoMod2014 6866, EcoMod.
    14. Elise Wach, 2021. "Market Dependency as Prohibitive of Agroecology and Food Sovereignty—A Case Study of the Agrarian Transition in the Scottish Highlands," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-23, February.
    15. Sara D. Elder & Jane Lister & Peter Dauvergne, 2014. "Big retail and sustainable coffee: A new development studies research agenda," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 14(1), pages 77-90, January.
    16. Latynskiy, E. & Berger, T., 2013. "An agent-based network approach for understanding, analyzing and supporting rural producer organizations in agriculture," Proceedings “Schriften der Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften des Landbaues e.V.”, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA), vol. 48, March.
    17. Xinyu Yang & Weidong Liu, 2022. "Agricultural Production Networks and Upgrading from a Global–Local Perspective: A Review," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-14, October.
    18. Getnet, Kindie & Kefyalew, Geremew & Berhanu, Wassie, 2018. "On the power and influence of the cooperative institution: Does it secure competitive producer prices?," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 9(C), pages 43-47.
    19. Starobin, Shana M., 2021. "Credibility beyond compliance: Uncertified smallholders in sustainable food systems," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    20. Valeria Borsellino & Emanuele Schimmenti & Hamid El Bilali, 2020. "Agri-Food Markets towards Sustainable Patterns," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-35, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rss:jnljbs:v1i4p2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Danish Khalil (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.rassweb.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.