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Importance of small-scale tea producers in Kenya is not in doubt. They account for 60% of all tea produced in the country, serve about 560,000 tea farmers and employ about 10,000 people directly. However, the subsector faces a myriad of challenges ranging from declining yields and rising costs of production to fluctuating world prices. Thus, it is imperative that the producers entrench efficiency as a critical success factor. This makes it important for the producers to understand their relative performances to inform decisions on improving input use. Congruent with this motivation, this study sought to analyze the technical efficiency (TE) of the country's small-scale tea processors within and across the regions under the management of Kenya Tea Development Authority.

To allow comparison across regions, this study adopted a stochastic metafrontier approach and to be able to decompose inefficiency into persistent and time-varying components, the study adopted regression analysis.

Results showed that the small-scale tea processors operated at a mean TE level of 76% with a technology gap ratio (TGR) of 97%. This implies that the prevailing level of output could be maintained even if inputs were reduced by 24%. Persistent inefficiency could be reduced possibly through rationalization of structural and managerial components of the firms.

While it is important to adopt yield-enhancing technologies and innovation, small-scale tea processors have the latitude to improve their earnings through enhanced TE. They can save up to 24% of their input and be able to pay farmers better even with the fluctuating global tea prices. Enhancing TE should be given priority because it is within the control of the individual firms.

This is a pioneering study in panel data analysis of TE of small-scale tea processors within and across regions in Kenya.

This study aims to explore the opportunities and methods for branding fresh tea leaves, currently sold as commodities in the B2B market, as an innovative method by engaging with a smallholder group. The purpose is to enhance the market competitiveness of the significant number of small tea growers in developing economies.

An exploratory study was conducted comprising a qualitative survey of a farmers' group formed by the smallholding of tea gardens and the sourcing factories in the state of Assam, India. Relevant case studies on the branding of agricultural commodities were also analyzed.

Smallholding farmers, through collective efforts and with adequate extension and marketing support, can comply with the standards expected from their buyer. Perishable farm produce sold in the B2B market can be differentiated by exploiting attributes beyond the physical product. Market linkages established through innovative practices can enhance the market competitiveness of smallholdings.

Successful branding of tea leaves can encourage similar practice in other agricultural crops as well. This will improve the quality of produce, increase the earnings of smallholdings and at the same time enhance customer value and satisfaction.

This paper is the first of its kind to investigate the opportunities for branding tea leaves produced by smallholdings and sold in the B2B market. The findings will be useful to researchers, smallholdings, policymakers, and consumers at large.

The main goal of this paper is to study the specific characteristics of the performance of companies in the metallurgical sector, in the northern region of Portugal.

To achieve this aim, the authors have used data from 325 companies manufacturing metal products, except machinery and equipment (CAE Rev.3 25) and 27 companies that manufacture machinery and equipment (CAE Rev. 3 28). The models were estimated by using the panel data methodology for the period between 2011 and 2019. Specifically, the estimation method of the generalized method of moments system (GMM system) proposed by Arellano and Bover (1995) and Blundell and Bond (1998) was used.

The results show that the main decisions on the performance of metallurgical companies in Northern Portugal depend on the dimensions of sales in the domestic market (SDM), sales in the community market (SCM), and sales in the foreign market (SFM) and also highlight that the signal and significance of the specific variables depends on how the different stakeholders understand performance.

As far as the authors know, this is the first study to comparatively analyze the two metallurgical databases in Portugal. Despite the huge difference in the size of the sample, this study’s results show that in an era of paradigm shift about what business objectives should be, stakeholders are still not environmentally aware and the social dimension is only considered by shareholders, but not yet by the manager and the general community.

Domestic demand for walnuts has been on the rise for the last decades. Consumption outstrips domestic production capacities, which led to increasing prices until recently. Small-scale farmers are at the centre of walnut tree planting and walnut collection efforts. Farmers are now integrated into rapidly expanding agrifood value chains. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the walnut value chain originating in Yunnan (the dominant producer of walnuts in China). The authors are especially interested in the position of small-scale farmers in the chain and the factors affecting the price that they receive.

Price and intra-chain governance information were collected through structured interviews with value chain actors like certified and conventional small-scale farmers, traders, processors, food manufacturers and wholesalers. The resultant price data set was analysed using a multiple regression analysis.

Timing of harvest, distance to market and sales volume are correlated with the village-level price. Farmers are in a market governance segment of the chain. Lead firms (e.g. supermarkets) are price-setters and determine the value distribution, with farmers receiving a smaller share relative to downstream actors’ shares.

Improved connectivity to markets, transparency of standards and price (formation), processing and certification could improve farmers’ profits.

The authors contribute to the growing literature of value chain studies focussing on farmers’ integration into food systems at different scales. The authors investigated the price determinants at the village level and additionally provide information on an organic marketing arrangement.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the ability of the Chinese geographical indications (GI) system to offer extra guarantees on food safety.

Based on a network approach, the research includes a literature review and takes a sample of GI products in Jiangxi Province as a means of exploring the ability of the GI system to enhance food safety in China.

The safety level of Chinese GI food products is not automatically ensured by GI schemes alone. The Chinese Government appears to be using GI labels more as a promotional tool to enhance farmers’ incomes rather than as a means of reducing safety concerns and is thus missing an opportunity to enhance food safety in tandem with adding value.

This research is of academic value and of value to policy makers. The results suggest an urgent need to encourage producers to attend GI management programmes, to generate appropriate GI standards, to be actively involved in GI issuing processes, and thus to provide “safe” GI products. Meanwhile, with weak government enforcement, there is also a need to build an effective food safety regulatory system to ensure food safety and protect consumers’ rights.

Developing new markets for small producers has been a major focus of research and development in many parts of the world. Too frequently, the ways in which existing production and market systems constrain producer possibilities has been ignored. This study examines how existing systems have affected coffee farmers in Costa Rica and Panama as they attempt to enter the elite coffee market, which promises higher prices for premium production. In the past 50 years, Costa Rica had created a system quite favorable to small producers in the world coffee market, while Panama had done little. Yet today, the Costa Rican system has proven to be a barrier to entering the highest levels of the coffee market, while the Panamanian system has produced coffees that are currently among the best in the world. The shifting ways in which production and marketing systems connect with world markets and elite taste suggest the necessity of greater sensitivity to how existing systems affect what farmers can and will decide to do.

This study explores the determinants of growth of credence-based exports of yerba mate from Paraguay, potential for increased export growth, and the fragility of the credence-based export model. Much of the growth in value of yerba mate exports from Paraguay is due to positioning of the good within the universe of products where consumption is driven by perceptions of sustainable production and health benefits to consumers. Credence claims for yerba mate—benefits to indigenous producing communities, environmental sustainability under certain production processes, healthful alternatives to energy drinks—are now widely known, but the growth of this awareness came via a new entrepreneurial strategy of a single firm.

Primary information was collected through interviews of actors in the Paraguayan yerba mate value chain during spring/summer 2020. These included representatives from three exporting companies, processors, public institutions and indigenous producers.

The Paraguayan yerba mate export boom was stimulated through the careful cultivation of an image of healthful consumption and sustainable production processes. The cost of this cultivation was borne mainly by a single firm. Findings suggest that future marketing efforts will need to reinforce credence claims, highlighting the benefits to indigenous producers.

This case study explores the determinants of growth of credence-based exports of yerba mate from Paraguay, potential for increased growth, and the fragility of the credence-based model.

Findings are supported by field interviews with value chain participants and detailed analysis of extant data. The paper is the first to discuss the fragility of relying on credence attributes for long-term demand growth.

Entrepreneurship, Small Business, Small-scale Dairy Farmers

This case is appropriate for undergraduate final year/senior as well as graduate-level programme students.

This case explores the life of Saravanan, a small-scale dairy farmer in Malaysia. He inherited the business from his father. Small-scale farmers in Malaysia own farms with 30 (or fewer) milking cows. Over the years, milk consumption had been on the rise, but production was less than promising. Besides low-quality milk, Saravanan often experienced issues of low milk yield. Selling fresh milk as his only source of income and the milk collection centre as his sole marketing channel, Saravanan was caught in a financially tight situation when product diversification and marketing initiatives were limited. Saravanan’s problems began with rejected fresh milk, which landed him with zero income for the day. This issue was detected when the authorities identified a few contaminated batches of milk during a site visit. The problem compounded when Saravanan had to settle three months’ debt with the feed supplier on the same day. Saravanan’s predicament echoed the plight faced by small-scale farmers in Malaysia. After managing the farm for more than 30 years, Saravanan had plans to pass it to his son, Mugunthan. However, doubts about the sustainability of the business remained. Would Mugunthan suffer the same dire fate? Would he be able to find a way out? Based on the problem-solving framework, the case attempts to identify and assess the problems faced by small-scale dairy farmers in Malaysia, and at the same time, to suggest solutions that will ensure the sustainability of their business.

After attempting the case, students should learn to empathise with the hardship small-scale dairy farmers endure in the pursuit of their businesses, analyse issues and determine the root causes of the problems faced by small-scale dairy farmers in Malaysia based on the problem-solving framework, generate and justify sustainable solutions to solve the problems faced by these dairy farmers and present the case, discuss and work in teams, and critically offer sustainable solutions based on framework and theories.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

The chapter identifies key components of the new patterns of farming and rural livelihoods emerging in Latin America in the twenty-first century. By the beginning of the millennium, most rural areas of Latin America had become integrated into global agricultural commodity networks that curtail the opportunities for small-scale, family-based farming and result in two predominant types of production, the corporate large-scale enterprise suited to oils seeds and their derivatives, cattle or vegetables for processing and the smaller commercially oriented farm producing market garden products, fruits and wine. Both types of farms often form part of commodity networks organized by domestic intermediaries, large-scale supermarket chains, such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour, and foreign food marketers. In addition to the multiplication of external commercial linkages, high levels of urbanization have increasingly blurred the distinction between the rural and the urban. Off-farm work, including international labor migration, is now an important source of rural livelihoods. This context means that research needs to address the multiple interfaces that now connect the different types of rural inhabitants with a wide range of external actors.