Preparing the Ground for Unrest: Private and Public Regulation of Labour in the Fresh-Fruit Global Value Chain

Abstract

This chapter combines the approaches of global production networks and global value chains, so as to explain recent protests by farmworkers in the Western Cape. It is highlighted how private and public governance by lead firms from the fresh-fruit sector and the South Africa government contributed to social tension in the indigent community of De Doorns. The author shows how economic upgrading in De Doorns has been accompanied by social downgrading. She explains that the ability of the state to increase the minimum wage for farmworkers is constrained by the unequal distribution of bargaining power between domestic fresh-fruit producers and retailers from overseas: the former cannot increase their value capture, but this would be necessary to compensate for substantially higher wages, as demanded by farmworkers. From a conceptual perspective, this chapter demonstrates that it is critical to include labour as a unit of analysis when assessing upgrading in value chains.