Market Coverage

Over the last three decades, a growing number of voluntary sustainability standards (VSSs) have emerged to enhance environmental conservation and improve the livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers across different sectors, including agriculture, forestry, mining and fisheries. 

There are now over 400 VSSs operating across the planet. These include Organic Certification, Fairtrade International and Forest Stewardship Council to name a few.

VSSs are norms that define a set of requirements for producing and selling products in a more sustainable manner concerning issues such worker health and safety measures, soil conservation and minimum price paid to farmers. They also provide guidelines for labeling VSS-compliant products in business-to-business transactions and in end-consumer markets. By doing so, they provide manufacturers and retailers with information about the origin and sourcing conditions of the product. They also provide consumers with some assurance that purchasing VSS-compliant products can result in more sustainable outcomes for communities, natural environments and economies.

We examine the market performance of commodities that comply with voluntary sustainability standards to understand the forces and factors influencing their potential market expansion or contraction.