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Agri-food system transformations and diet-related chronic disease in Australia: a nutrition-oriented value chain approach

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Abstract

Attention has become increasingly focused in recent years on the role agri-food system transformations have played in driving the global diet-related chronic disease burden. Identifying the role played by the food-consuming industries (predominantly large manufacturers, processors, distributors, and retailers) in particular, and identifying possibilities to facilitate healthier diets through intervening in these industries, have been identified as a research priority. This paper explores the potential for one promising analytic framework—the nutrition-oriented value chain approach—to contribute to this area, drawing on recent insights from the global value chain (GVC) literature to develop an institutionally-enriched approach. The research focused on a canned deciduous fruit value chain linking growers, processors, and retailers in South Africa and Australia. Findings reveal the multiple drivers which have converged to shape this value chain over time, and the key actors which are influencing product availability, composition, price, and promotion within this sector. With its emphasis on identifying implications for end-consumption, rather than economic outcomes within the chain, nutrition-oriented value chain research represents a significant shift in focus for the GVC framework. Therefore, an immediate opportunity for further research is to extend the analytic framework to primary research on end-consumption behaviours.

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Notes

  1. Chronic diseases are health conditions that are typically distinguished by a prolonged period of illness, gradual onset (with long latency periods between risk accumulation and onset of illness), and complex, multi-factorial etiologies (multiple risk factors).

  2. The South African deciduous fruit canning industry further consolidated after field work had been completed, with Rhodes Food Group acquiring Del Monte South Africa in July 2010.

  3. Botanically, deciduous fruits grow on trees which shed their leaves in winter and include grapes, kiwifruit, blueberries, and cherries. Commercially, peaches, apricots, pears, plums, and apples are most commonly used in canning.

  4. While deciduous and tropical canned fruits sit alongside each other in supermarket aisles, deciduous and tropical fruit canning have traditionally operated as largely separate industries due to the distinct climatic requirements involved in fruit production. Only the deciduous fruit canning industry is examined in this paper.

  5. The first supermarket own-label was launched in Australia in 1978 by the Franklins retail chain under the ‘No Frills’ brand, and Coles and Woolworths had released generic canned fruit labels by the early 1980 s.

  6. The entry of German discount retailer Aldi (in particular) and US hypermarket-style retailer Costco into the Australian supermarket sector in 2001 and 2009 respectively is said to have increased competitive pressures on Coles and Woolworths and prompted the Australian retailers to invest more heavily in their own-label ranges as a source of competitive advantage (Griffith and Wright 2009). The entry of these two transnational retailers into the Australian market dispelled previously-held assumptions that high levels of retail sector concentration and saturation (amongst the highest in the world), a relatively small population, and geographic isolation were disincentives to foreign-direct investment in the Australian grocery retail sector.

  7. Woolworths Australia owns Progressive Enterprises Limited, New Zealand second largest grocery retail company, through which it sells its range of own-label products.

  8. State supports included minimum fixed selling prices, production volume control, collective marketing, direct and indirect financial assistance (including interest-free loans) to canneries, sugar rebates, export subsidies, and import tariffs of 10 %.

  9. A television advertisement for SPC Fruit in Jelly was banned by the Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB) in March 2011 following a public complaint that the advertisement encouraged the consumption of SPC Fruit in Jelly’s over fresh fruit. The advertisement depicted school children getting rid of fresh fruit in their lunchboxes, before cutting to a girl sitting on a bench eating an SPC Fruit in Jelly while a voiceover was heard saying ‘fruit that won’t get thrown away’. The ASB had previously dismissed public complaints about the advertisement in 2006, but noted in its March 2011 decision that “it is likely that community standards have developed on this issue”.

Abbreviations

CCA:

Coca Cola Amatil

CAP:

Common agricultural policy

EEC:

European economic community

FCI’s:

Food-consuming industries

GCC:

Global commodity chain

GVC:

Global value chain

NCD:

Non-communicable disease

WTO:

World Trade Organization

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Acknowledgments

This paper is based on the author’s PhD research which was supported by the Australian Research Council (Project No. DP0773092). The author would like to thank all those who generously agreed to participate in the research, as well as Jane Dixon and two anonymous reviewers for their very helpful feedback on earlier drafts of this paper.

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  1. National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

    Libby Hattersley

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Hattersley, L. Agri-food system transformations and diet-related chronic disease in Australia: a nutrition-oriented value chain approach. Agric Hum Values 30, 299–309 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-012-9411-9

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