Upgrading smallholder producer groups to meet food quality standards in premium markets: Case studies in southern Myanmar

Abstract

Demand for safe food has been increasing in response to rising consumer incomes, greater awareness of product attributes and their impacts on health, and rapid expansion of modern retail chains in developing countries (Minten and Reardon, 2008; Trienekens, 2011). As a result, vertical linkages between producers and markets have become increasingly coordinated (Reardon et al., 2005; Shepherd, 2007). This change has created both opportunities and challenges for smallholders. On the one hand, expanding supermarket and hospitality chains give smallholders opportunity to benefit from premium prices seldom found in traditional wet markets. On the other hand, smallholders lack the scale needed to meet the quantity and quality expectations of premium buyers at low cost. They are not familiar with the standards required or the practices needed to achieve them, they struggle to finance new technology and value-adding assets, and they have no reputation as reliable suppliers of safe food.