Certifying catfish in Vietnam and Bangladesh: Who will make the grade and will it matter?

► Third party certification (TPC) may impact catfish farmers in Vietnam and Bangladesh. ► We assess the implications of TCP for catfish producers and the environment. ► Environmental gains from TPC are likely to be somewhat limited. ► Inequalities in market access are likely to deepen among Vietname...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Food policy 2011-04, Vol.36 (2), p.289-299
Main Authors: Belton, Ben, Haque, Mohammad Mahfujul, Little, David C., Sinh, Le Xuan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural and food market
Agricultural production
Bangladesh
Catfish
Certification
Certification Pangasius catfish Vietnam Bangladesh Small-scale producers Sustainability
Environmental effects
Farmers
Farms
Fish industry
Fisheries
Fishery products
Food
Food industry
Food supply
Foods
Gain
Governance
Government and politics
Inequalities
Markets
NGOs
Nongovernmental organizations
Pangasius catfish
Production
Regulation
Small-scale producers
Standardization
Sustainability
TCP (protocol)
Vietnam
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Summary:► Third party certification (TPC) may impact catfish farmers in Vietnam and Bangladesh. ► We assess the implications of TCP for catfish producers and the environment. ► Environmental gains from TPC are likely to be somewhat limited. ► Inequalities in market access are likely to deepen among Vietnamese producers. ►TPC supports the interests of food buyers and standard setting organisations. Certification is an increasingly pervasive form of market governance through which retailers and NGOs are able to exert control over producers of primary products in order to secure their commercial and institutional interests. This paper assesses the likely outcomes of emerging certification standards intended to govern production of a new global commodity, Pangasius catfish. This evaluation focuses on Pangasius producers in Vietnam and Bangladesh, and one of the key areas which standards seek to regulate; the environment. We conclude that certification is likely to result in greater differentiation and polarisation between larger and smaller farm operators and will increasingly act to exclude of the latter from access to Western European and North American markets, and that any local environmental gains produced may be of relatively minor significance.
ISSN:0306-9192
1873-5657
DOI:10.1016/j.foodpol.2010.11.027