Can origin labels re-shape relationships along international supply chains? – The case of Café de Colombia

Abstract

Origin labels, more specifically Geographical Indications (GIs), allow organised producers to define quality standards and defend their food products' reputation while highlighting their geographical origin and value to consumers. Café de Colombia was the first non-European food product registered as Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) under EU legislation (510/2006, followed by 1151/2012). This paper aims to identify the dynamics of collective efforts and the rules of the game developed by coffee growers to protect the collective intellectual property right. Our guiding research questions are: i) to what extent can the Ostrom's design principles explain effective collective action for GI registration and implementation? and ii) can collective action for GIs reshape relations between supply chain actors and support producers in gaining control over origin products? We collected data using semi-structured interviews and document analysis, which we then processed in a qualitative text analysis. Results show that the principles are very helpful for understanding the internal collective action of coffee growers, and also clearly show the challenges in the Can origin labels re-shape relationships along international supply chains? 417 interaction with industrial coffee processors (e.g. international roasters, brand owners). A pure focus on the producers' collective action for establishing and managing the origin protection does not give a full picture, since green coffee beans are roasted and commercialised abroad. The GI has already re-shaped the relationships along the supply chains, as international roasters sign the producers' rules governing the PGI use. The commercial GI impact however will depend on consumers' willingness to appreciate and pay extra for high-quality origin coffee as well as the readiness of roasters or brand owners to emphasise on origin coffee, in addition to their brands of blended coffee.

Linking food systems and landscape sustainability in the Mediterranean region

“…Therefore, what we propose here is to revisit the idea of landscape labelling proposed by Mann and Plieninger (2017), which considers the differentiation of the entire landscape rather than of the particular product, allowing other local products to be considered under the label. On the one hand, this idea captures the essence and benefits of the GI-that is, embedding the products in their socio-cultural and ecological local contexts, highlighting their added value to consumers and differentiating them from the competition, and promoting the collaboration among producers to define quality standards (Quiñones-Ruiz et al 2015;Kizos et al 2017). On the other hand, it has at its core the integrated management of the landscape in which multiple actors and sectors (beyond the value chain) collaborate in a transparent and proactive way to preserve the landscape character and multiple landscape functions and services.…”

Analytic Framework to Determine Proximity in Relationship Coffee Models

“…The value chain analysed consists of two actors (a coffee producer and a restaurant owner), both located within the same region close to Medellin, a big city in Colombia. In Colombia, around 563,000 families economically depend on coffee production (Quiñones‐Ruiz et al ; Andrade and Zapata ). While the vast majority of the production is exported, domestic consumption is rising (USDA ).…”

Échapper au piège « qualité–exclusion » dans les indications géographiques : réflexions sur le cas du poivre de Penja

“…Dans de nombreux pays, les dispositifs d'accompagnement de l'IG, aussi bien publics que privés, ne sont pas capables de soutenir les démarches légales de reconnaissance, la mise en oeuvre des procédures de contrôle, et la gestion de l'IG comme un outil de promotion, une fois enregistrée (Quiñones-Ruiz et al, 2015).…”