Ripe for change: Ending human suffering in supermarket supply chains

Over the last decades, agricultural supply chains have become more global, and tightly coordinated/driven by a small number of food companies and retailing chains that connect agricultural producers with an ever-growing population of consumers.

In this context, we have conducted for Oxfam International a research on the value distribution – from farmers up to consumers – across a basket of food products purchased by international retailers, and an assessment of the necessary changes to ensure that small producers and workers can achieve a sustainable livelihood.

It provides for the first time quantitative estimates of the value breakdown within supermarket supply chains over the past 20 years, in 7 consumer countries (USA, Germany, UK, Netherlands, South Africa, Thailand and Indonesia) for 12 food products (coffee, tea, cocoa, rice, shrimp, tuna, orange juice, banana, grape, green beans, tomato and avocado) sourced from 16 producer countries. It also assesses the gap between the current income/wage earned by small producers/workers, and the living income/wage that would be required for them to reach decent living conditions. Eventually, it analyses these numbers in the light of the power relations and governance of the related global value chains.

The results offer new evidence that the socio-economic conditions for small-scale farmers and workers have worsened over the past 20 years, largely to the benefit of supermarkets and to a lesser extent international brands, and are likely to deteriorate further in the years ahead in a business-as-usual scenario. A point of no return might be reached in which the very viability of small-scale farmers supplying supermarkets is in question, with increasingly precarious forms of work. The rights of millions to a decent standard of living, as well as the natural environment, are likely to be at stake in the short to mid-term.

Our research also investigated the opportunities to chart a different future, in which small-scale farmers and workers manage to make a decent living and realise their human rights, looking at processes that can provide effective solutions to the current situation:

• adequate statutory minimum producer prices and wages;
• increased bargaining power of small-scale farmers, workers and women;
• mechanisms to redistribute value along the chain

 

To download Oxfam’s reports:

• Executive Summary
• Main Global Report
• Methodological Note
• Oxfam GB report (UK focus)
• Oxfam Novib report (Netherlands focus)
• Oxfam Deutschland report (Germany focus)
• Oxfam America report (USA focus)
• Sectoral report on shrimps

In the media:

• Huffington Post: “British Supermarkets Are ‘Trapping’ Overseas Farmers In Poverty, Claims Oxfam”
• iNews: “UK supermarkets leaving farmers ‘in poverty’, according to new Oxfam report”
• Reuters: “UK supermarket squeeze on suppliers fuels poverty and abuse, campaigners say”
• The Baltimore Sun: “Supermarket giants play role in mistreatment of global food workers, report says”
• Mic: “Low wages and no breaks study shows the dark side of the supply chain at Walmart and Whole Foods”
• Business & Human Rights Resource Centre: “Oxfam scores US and European supermarkets on food supply chains”
• AFP: “Supermarkets must help end ‘brutal conditions’ for farmers: Oxfam”
• Deutsche Welle: “Oxfam slams German supermarkets over unfair practices”
• Dutch News: “Oxfam Novib: Dutch supermarkets shortchange developing-world suppliers”
• Citizen (South Africa): “Supermarket chains force farmworkers to endure ‘brutal conditions’ – Oxfam”
• Huffington Post South Africa: “Oxfam Report Reveals Women Are Biggest Victims Of Exploitation By Global Supermarket Industry”
• The Standard (Kenya): “UK supermarket squeeze on suppliers fuels poverty and abuse, campaigners say”
• Free Malaysia Today: “Oxfam: Supermarkets must help end ‘brutal conditions’ for farmers”
• Finanzas (Espana): “Alimentos: Oxfam denuncia las desigualdades entre productores y supermercados”
• El Mostrator (Chile): “Walmart y otras cadenas son mal evaluadas en tratamiento a trabajadores”
• AFP: “Oxfam denuncia las desigualdades en el sector agroalimentario entre productores y supermercados”
• Agencia Brasil: “Redes de supermercados contribuem para pobreza no campo, diz estudo”
• Correio Brazilense: “Trabalhador que colhe frutas no Brasil ganha menos que 5% do valor de venda”