Text

E-book Certifying China: The Rise and Limits of Transnational Sustainability Governance in Emerging Economies

---

Penilaian

---

In the early 1990s, Mr. H, who was in his thirties at that time, was already the general manager of a state- owned tea company in the Jiangxi province of China. However, he was struggling to find customers for tea produced in his county, Wuyuan— which had been famous for its green tea for more than 1,000 years— in a free and open market after the government had ceased to control the product price and distribution. He had tried a variety of strategies, including building connections with retailers in Shanghai and Beijing, developing different types of tea products, and applying for a gov-ernment award of green food. Unfortunately, even after several years, all such efforts did not increase his sales. Finally, with the support of the China Green Food Development Center, affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture, he participated in an international expo and met representa-tives from a German trading company. These German merchants indicated that they would be interested in Mr. H’s products if his tea had the organic certification recognized by the European market. Mr. H soon sensed oppor-tunities through this encounter and invited the German company for a visit to Wuyuan. In August 1997, the company and its partner certifier vis-ited the tea farms supplying Mr. H and were satisfied by the conditions they found there. After conducting an evaluation, the auditors believed that these farms met the relevant organic standards, so the German com-pany decided to place an order for 200 kilograms of tea with Mr. H.Twenty years later, in 2017, when telling me about his first experience with certification, Mr. H proudly stated that by selling only organic and Fairtrade tea certified according to international standards, his company has been able to export more than 1,000 metric tons of products per year, which represents more than half of China’s organic tea exports to Europe. He emphasized that organic and Fairtrade certifications have completely changed his business trajectory and that he is personally so committed to the vision of sustain-able production championed by these certification programs that he con-tinues this practice even though this is costly.The story of Mr. H is a telling example of how eco- certification has been taken up and understood by Chinese businesses.1 Yet his experience may sound unusual to many of his peer companies, who barely recognize various certification programs and do not understand their required standards. In fact, sustainability certification and labels remain new to the Chinese market. About 10 years ago, when I left China to study in Switzerland, I heard the term “certified sustainable timber” for the first time and saw the “tick tree” logo of the Forest Stewardship Council, which was a common sight in Euro-pean supermarkets for anyone paying attention to product packaging. Since then, every time that I go back to my hometown, Nanjing, I have tried to find the ecolabels that I had seen in Europe while grocery shopping. In the begin-ning, I was quite disappointed and wondered why these labels “disappeared” in China. But after a few years, I was finally able to find some familiar logos in supermarkets, coffee shops, and even on e- commerce platforms. Obviously, not all companies operating in China have embraced these programs initi-ated and managed by non- state actors, and certified products are likely to be more common in certain sectors than in others. But there is no doubt that some changes have happened in China regarding this novel mode of gov-ernance.2 This book seeks to explain how such changes happened in China and the variation across different sectors and companies in their support for eco- certification. By showing the conditions under which transnational eco-certification arise in the unique context of China, the book will shed light on the potential and limits of this new governance mode in driving the world’s most populous country toward sustainable production and consumption

---

Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

-

No. Panggil

338.1 SUN c

Penerbit

China : The MIT Press., 2022

Deskripsi Fisik

277 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9780262369619

Klasifikasi

338.1

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

-

Subjek

Agriculture

Info Detail Spesifik

-

Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

-

Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

Komentar

---

Anda harus masuk sebelum memberikan komentar