Inequalities in agro-industrial global value chains governance: How ?multi-stakeholder? is the EU-RED system for Argentinean biodiesel in practice?

Río de Janeiro

Congreso; SASE Annual Conference; 2023

Universidad Federal do Rio de Janeiro

Sustainability governance of agro-industrial global value chains has become a major global issue in the last decades. Many sustainability governance initiatives are depicted as multi-stakeholder´´ on the basis of the participatory process that takes place in the development of the standards. However, it has been argued that global standards often focus on Northern priorities and fail to capture Southern stakeholders? views. This is particularly relevant considering that stakeholder comprehensiveness is directly related to certification schemes? legitimacy. In absence of an adequate stakeholder analysis throughout the whole certification process, there is the risk that the most powerful actors monopolize decision-making to the detriment of vulnerable groups. Seeking to contribute to this debate from an in-depth case study, this paper explores stakeholders? demands at the Argentinean biodiesel industry to contrast them with the practices that arise from EU-RED?s implementation.