Certification opportunities and challenges for the Pacific producers All ACP Agriculture Commodities Programme (AAACP) & Secretariat of the Pacific Community

This Brief is one of a series developed under the All ACP Agricultural Commodities Programme (AAACP), which is funded by the European Union. The AAACP aims to improve the incomes and livelihoods of agricultural producers, and to reduce income vulnerability at the producer and macroeconomic levels. In the Pacific, the Programme is being implemented by the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the International Trade Centre (ITC), with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community’s Land Resources Division (LRD) providing regional facilitation and representation.

Certification – for example fair trade or organic certification – guarantees that products, and the processes of their production, meet a particular set of standards. Standards address a diverse range of objectives, for example fair prices for farmers, good working conditions and fair pay for farm workers, environmental sustainability of production processes, and product quality. An increasing number of consumers, mostly in developed countries, will pay premium prices for products in order to support these objectives, and the market for certified products is rapidly growing in many countries. Supplying this market is opening up opportunities for producers, traders and exporters; however there are also costs associated with achieving certification which are restricting access for some.