Jan Buurma visited the closing conference of the ENDURE project in Paris. Topics discussed were interest groups, power balances, and transitional processes en this involved frequent references to the history of the Dutch crop protection policy.
Mr Buurma presented the content analysis 'Transition to consumer driven value chains' of the public debate on non-compliance with Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) in vegetables and fruits. The analysis reveals the history of supermarket companies taking over the inspection on compliance with MRLs from the government in the Netherlands.
This public debate was raised and kept going by campaigns and lawsuits by NGO's for several years. Government services defended the existing order but the supermarket companies feared consumer strikes and finally decided to listen to the NGOs.
In retrospection, the success of the NGO's could be traced back to changes in horticultural markets and in the political landscape of the Netherlands in the 1990's. Due to these changes the power of consumers and citizens increased at the cost of the power of the agricultural community.
The paper shows that the primary producers strongly depend on their value chain partners. The paper also shows that proper knowledge of the perceptions, motives and concerns of consumers and retailers is imperative for the design and adoption of modern techniques.