Embedded geographies and quality construction in Sulawesi coffee commodity chains

Abstract

Changing global conditions of agri-food production, trade and consumption are resulting in industry re-regulation and new forms of supply chain governance. This thesis explores emerging governance structures within a set of coffee commodity chains, which are dominated by various quality considerations. The research scrutinises relationships between the geographies of production and global commodity chain structures. To this end, a detailed investigation of production geographies is performed in one particular producing region, South Sulawesi in Indonesia. The diverse ways in which these regional geographies are inserted within, and transformed by, global supply chains in the coffee sector provide vital insights into emerging characteristics of the global economy. Prices paid for tropical commodities such as coffee, are currently at historic lows due primarily to chronic global oversupply. Quality-related product differentiation is a common policy recommendation to producers of tropical commodities to escape these depressed prices. In the Sulawesi coffee commodity chains moreover, quality is widely perceived and presented to consumers as a function of geographical associations with the site of agricultural production. However, a key insight of this thesis is to add a cautionary note to an argument for product differentiation as an unqualified economic development option for commodity producers. In the case of Sulawesi coffee, powerful corporate actors have been able to appropriate the value of geographically-informed quality differentiation. A central concern of this analysis is to document and interrogate the complex and contested (social) constructions of quality within the supply chains that link together disparate worlds of production and consumption. Traceability emerges as a critical mode of supply chain coordination to enable the authentication of quality constructions. Furthermore, traceability prioritises the accurate and efficient transmission of information and knowledge in the maintenance of trade relationships between supply chain actors. Traceability imperatives require innovative forms of supply chain coordination, and this thesis examines the emergence of new industry structures as a result of these changing conditions. Furthermore, the implementation of traceability systems with control over quality construction and management has important consequences for the allocation of economic benefits amongst supply chain actors.