Facilitating small producers' access to high-value markets: lessons from four development projects

Jonathan Dawson

Globalization creates opportunities as well as obstacles for small producers in the countries of the global South. This paper describes the attempts of four BDS initiatives - AKILI (Kenya), USSIA (Uganda),
SITE (Kenya) and SEEDS (Sri Lanka) - to help small producers exploit emerging opportunities to reach new markets within and outside their countries. Considerable success was achieved in helping client producers
access new, higher-value markets and to link up with private sector BDS providers, including packaging firms and standards certification agencies, thus enabling the producers to supply supermarkets and
other non-traditional markets. However, such successes were often limited to the minority of more advanced small businesses, the so-called 'stars': more difficulties were encountered when working with the
less sophisticated majority of microenterprises and small businesses (MSEs), especially where a significant leap in product quality was required for them to access the new markets. The greatest potential
for widespread outreach and poverty alleviation lies in the adoption of sub-sector approaches, where there is greater potential for leverage. There is still an important role for support agencies to identify
market opportunities thrown up by globalization, of which small producers are often unaware.