This article argues that EUREPGAP regulations for flower growing is excluding many smallholders from participating in value chains that offer a route to modern markets and significant development potential. It argues that COLEACP (Committee for Liaison bettern Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific) provides an alternative bottom-up initative to EUREPGAP. It is valuable in that it takes into account the specificities of flower production in developing countries and holds the exporter responsible for helping farmers comply with standards.
Over the past two decades, developing countries have experienced comparatively very rapid growth in
their exports of fresh fruit and vegetables. This trade has spread from an initial base of traditional tropical
fruits—for example, bananas, and pineapples—to include a broader array of fruits and vegetables.
While there are a number of success stories from developing countries in this field, the market and
regulatory context for this trade is changing in ways that appear to be raising the bar for new entrants
while throwing new challenges in the path of existing developing country suppliers. Consumers in
industrialized countries are becoming increasingly concerned about food safety and about the
environmental and/or social dimensions of their food supply chain. In several regions, especially within
the European Union, the response to these consumer concerns—and to certain prevailing weaknesses in
systems to manage food safety—has been a wave of legislative and regulatory activity, and the emergence
of numerous private sector ‘codes of practice’ or other technical protocols.
