Apples and Flowers. Effects of Pandemics on the (Re-)Organization of Commodity Chains for Fresh Agricultural Products

• Applicants: Professorin Dr. Nina Baur; Professor Dr. Elmar Kulke
• Subject Area: Human Geography ; Empirical Social Research ; Economic Theory
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 458460698

Combining the economic geographical approaches of global value chains (GVC) and global production networks (GPN) with the economic sociological approach of sociology of conventions, we analyze how the external shock of the Covid-19 pandemic induced the (re-)organization of the commodity chains, using two agricultural fresh-products (apples and flowers) as examples. For each product, one short and one long commodity chain will be contrasted, namely the German-German and ChileGerman apple chain and the Dutch-German and Kenya-German chain. Assuming that a commodity chain’s past structure and actors’ knowledge provide the basis for crisis reaction, we will trace how the (1) commodity chains were organized before the crisis and who are key actors, (2) how the chain and its actors were affected by the crisis, why actors reacted in which ways to the crisis and what are the driving forces of change as well as (3) what short-term and long-effect the Covid-19 pandemic has both on the spatial organization of the chain and on the actors of the chain. The project will (1) make a theoretical contribution to social theory and economic geographical theory and towards integrating these research fields, namely the approaches of global value chains (GVC, GPN) with sociology of conventions. (2) The project will also provide knowledge on short-term and long-term effects of external shocks in general and the Covid-19 pandemic in particular on the organization of commodity chains. (3) Concerning social-policy-implications, project results will give retailers and consumers ideas on how to develop robust commodity chains with security of delivery. Agricultural producers will learn about possibilities how to secure the connection between production and demand. (4) The project also contributes to furthering social science methodology by combining the approach of value chain mapping with process-oriented micro-macro-analysis.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Kenya
• Cooperation Partners: Dr. Gilbert Nduru; Professor Dr. Willis Oluoch-Kosura; Professor Dr. Ephraim W. Wahome, Ph.D.