Balancing detail and scale in assessing transparency to improve the governance of agricultural commodity supply chains
In this article in the Environmental Research Letters, a complementary approach to existing approaches of assessing the sustainability of commodity supply chains is introduced. This approach can help provide actionable information, for example to improve sourcing and production practices, without requiring costly dedicated tracking systems for each individual supply chain. The authors illustrate some of the advantages of a complementary middle-ground approach that balances detail and scale of supply chain transparency information by combining consistent country-wide data on commodity production at the sub-national (e.g. municipal) level with per shipment customs data to describe trade flows of a given commodity covering all companies and production regions within that country. This approach can support supply chain governance in two key ways. First, enhanced spatial resolution of the production regions that connect to individual supply chains allows for a more accurate consideration of geographic variability in measures of risk and performance that are associated with different production practices. Second, identification of key actors that operate within a specific supply chain, including producers, traders, shippers and consumers can help discriminate coalitions of actors that have shared stake in a particular region, and that together are capable of delivering more cost-effective and coordinated interventions. The potential of this approach is illustrated with examples from Brazil, Indonesia and Colombia. It is discussed how transparency information can deepen understanding of the environmental and social impacts of commodity production systems, how benefits are distributed among actors, and some of the trade-offs involved in efforts to improve supply chain sustainability.