This paper depicts how the general turn from mass consumption toward increased qualitative differentiation of products - the quality turn - manifest in the South African agro-food system. The strong influence of these quality trends on agro-food systems evolution has been widely discussed in...

The restructuring process of the food markets in South Africa is at an advanced stages of consolidation and the emergence dominance of few supermarket chains expanding into non-traditional areas, through franchise format stores and forecourt stores overtaking informal wet markets and green...

The rise of supermarkets, together with large-scale food manufacturers, has deeply transformed agri-food markets in many countries. This expansion has been evident in South Africa as well. Increasing attention has been and is being paid to the growth of supermarkets in countries outside of North...

The global food crisis led to upward trends in food prices across the world. The millions of impoverished people living in developing countries including Ghana were the worst affected by the phenomenal increases in world food prices. This paper examines the implications of the global food crisis...

Replaced with revised version of paper on 01/14/2011.

With the emergence of private food safety and quality standards in developed countries fruit exporting countries in the developing world face increasing constraints to access markets in the rich industrialised countries in the North. Producers in the South have no alternative as to make the...

This study quantifies the possible income and nutritional impact of the recent commitment by the South African Department of Agriculture to increase budgetary spending on agricultural development. Three levels of models are utilized. The first, a large-scale partial equilibrium model, generated...

The difference between hypothetical and real values when evaluating consumers’ preferences (termed ‘hypothetical bias’) has received significant attention in scientific literature, as the outcome of this bias is often an overestimation of willingness to pay (WTP) values. This is the main...

Livestock is the most important source of cash for small-scale farmers in the semi-arid tropics of southern Africa. However, with limited access to markets, farmers do not have the incentive to invest in improved livestock management. Livestock production and off-takes remain low and farmers are...

Due to the size of the European Union’s agricultural production and its market, the impact of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reaches far beyond Europe and has major implications for trade in agricultural goods all over the world including the ESA region. Since the 1950s, the CAP...