Turi kumwe (we are together) : a transdisciplinary exploration of the Burundian specialty coffee sector and its sustainability challenges

[摘要] ENGLISH SUMMARY : Coffee is considered as a pioneering example of sustainable production and tradeamongst tropical commodities because of its rich history of alternative trading practicesand movements. The most common way of producing 'sustainable coffee' is throughthe certification of production using voluntary or private sustainability standards.Sustainable coffee consumption is increasingly being mainstreamed; shaking off theniche, idiosyncratic market image it occupied in previous decades. Compared to thebeginnings of the fair/ethical trade coffee movement, it is now relatively easy for largevolume buyers (especially retailers) to purchase sustainable coffee throughconventional trading companies that use third-party certification and labelling. Thetrend towards 'sticker coffee' implies that large volume coffee buyers regard origin (thepeople and place where a particular coffee comes from) as significantly less importantthan the sticker that certifies the production processes as 'sustainable'. Suppliersubstitutability, a common practice in the conventional coffee market, is now commonpractice within the sustainable coffee market. Smaller origins (those that cannot offerlarge volumes) as well as origins that that are the furthest away from the standards ofproduction required for certification (often as a result of their relatively low level ofdevelopment) will struggle to gain a foothold and compete in the sustainable coffeemarket. Recognising the tension between the trade potential of standardisingsustainability and the realities of context is at the core of this study. This thesis isrooted in the lived experience of working in a coffee producing company in one of theworld's poorest countries, Burundi. It is an attempt to learn about sustainability issueswithin the Burundian coffee sector by inserting the research into an actual coffee supplychain. An open research agenda was maintained in order to design the researchprocess as it unfolded using Emergent Transformation Design (ETD) – atransdisciplinary research approach suitable for a developing world context. The jointproblem definition of the ETD revealed that the production of high quality coffee wascritically important for the local producer organisation in which the research wasembedded and that production needed to be done in such a way as to build authentictrust relationships with local farmers. An Integrated Pest Management (IPM)programme, employing 26 young Burundians, emerged from the joint problemdefinition. This thesis reflectively documents the unplanned, yet intuitive, researchjourney that lead to the creation of the IPM programme.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University