Ethical Trading： The Implications of the Human Rights Watch Report on South African Fruit Exports

This paper presents an ex-ante assessment of the potential implications of the 2011 Human Rights Watch Report on the South African fruit industry. The report explicitly mentions the lack of compliance with ethical codes within the fruit industry, the prevalence of exploitative conditions for farm workers and diverse human rights abuses in farms. The report recommends import ban on culprits as well as engaging third party auditing to ensure compliance. The high vulnerability of the smallholder farmers justified the special interest in the implications on their reputation and hence their ability to access profitable export markets. Although large-scale commercial farmers are potentially at risk of reputational damage due to the Human Rights Watch Report, they are better able to cope owing to their stronger capital base. The opinions of knowledgeable industry insiders were therefore elicited through qualitative research that used a five-point Likert scale to assess perceptions about market access. On the basis of the results, it is probable that the report will lead to improved working conditions for farm workers, improved concern for consumers＇ health, and enforcement of legislation by the govemment. The negative implications involve increased competition, possibility of retailers＇ rationalising their supply base and increased evaluation that ends at the farm gate. There is also high probability of increased marginalisation of the already disadvantaged smallholder suppliers, and possible increase in costs of auditing and accreditation for the entire fruit industry. Thus, active collaboration among all stakeholders to ensure the competitiveness of the fruit industry is inevitable.

An Overview of Turkish Pistachio Sector

Originating from the genus Pistacia, the only edible species, Pistacia vera, covers at least 10 different sub-species and has a commercial value in the nut industry as a snack food. Pistachio kernels arc very popular ingredients used in meat products and in the confectionary industry as a part of various pastry products. Historically, Iran has the advantage in supply side and leads the world in pistachio trade. Turkey comes in the third place in terms of production and provides over 70 thousand metric tons of pistachios in 2007, capturing 14 percent production share world wide. As being one of the major habitats of pistachios, Turkey has potential to develop new variaties and increase the productivity, thereby to take advantage of higher profits that may arise from foreign trade in pistachios. Even though pistachio production in Turkey has increased in the last 20 years, this opportunity is yet to be discovered since yield and quality factors are still at low levels, resulting in dramatic losses in foreign market shares. Possible remedies for this problem include irrigation made available to pistachio orchards, adopting new caltivars more tolerant to diseases, preventing the illegal entrance of Iranian pistachios, facilitating the unification of pistachio producers, provoking the consumption of fresh pistachios, and expanding the business into new international markets.